scholarly journals Antibiotics increase aggression behavior and aggression-related pheromones and receptors in Drosophila melanogaster

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michal Grinberg ◽  
Hadar Neuman ◽  
Oren Ziv ◽  
Sondra Turjeman ◽  
Rita Nosenko ◽  
...  

AbstractAggression is a behavior common in most species; it is controlled by internal and external drivers, including hormones, environmental cues, and social interactions, and underlying pathways are understood in a broad range of species. To date, though, effects of gut microbiota on aggression in the context of gut-brain communication and social behavior have not been elucidated. We examine how manipulation of Drosophila melanogaster microbiota affect aggression as well as the pathways that underly the behavior in this species. Flies treated with antibiotics exhibited significantly more aggressive behaviors. Furthermore, they had higher levels of vCA and (Z)-9 Tricosene, pheromones associated with aggression in flies, as well as higher expression of the relevant pheromone receptors and transporters OR67d, OR83b, GR32a, and LUSH. These findings suggest that aggressive behavior is, at least in part, mediated by bacterial species in flies.

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lilach Simchi ◽  
Hanoch Kaphzan

AbstractAngelman syndrome (AS) is a genetic neurodevelopmental disorder due to the absence of the E3-ligase protein, UBE3A. Inappropriate social interactions, usually hyper-sociability, is a part of that syndrome. In addition, clinical surveys and case reports describe aggressive behavior in AS individuals as a severe difficulty for caretakers. A mouse model for AS recapitulates most of the human AS phenotypes. However, very few studies utilized this mouse model for investigating affiliative social behavior, and not even a single study examined aggressive behavior. Hence, the aim of the herein study was to examine affiliative and aggressive social behavior. For that, we utilized a battery of behavioral paradigms, and performed detailed analyses of these behaviors. AS mice exhibited a unique characteristic of reduced habituation towards a social stimulus in comparison to their wild-type (WT) littermates. However, overall there were no additional marked differences in affiliative social behavior. In contrast to the mild changes in affiliative behavior, there was a striking enhanced aggression in the AS mice compared to their WT littermates. The herein findings emphasize the use of AS mouse model in characterizing and measuring inappropriate aggressive behavior, and suggests these as tools for investigating therapeutic interventions aimed at attenuating aggressive behavior.


Genes ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (11) ◽  
pp. 534 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cristian Pasquaretta ◽  
Tamara Gómez-Moracho ◽  
Philipp Heeb ◽  
Mathieu Lihoreau

Microbes influence a wide range of host social behaviors and vice versa. So far, however, the mechanisms underpinning these complex interactions remain poorly understood. In social animals, where individuals share microbes and interact around foods, the gut microbiota may have considerable consequences on host social interactions by acting upon the nutritional behavior of individual animals. Here we illustrate how conceptual advances in nutritional ecology can help the study of these processes and allow the formulation of new empirically testable predictions. First, we review key evidence showing that gut microbes influence the nutrition of individual animals, through modifications of their nutritional state and feeding decisions. Next, we describe how these microbial influences and their social consequences can be studied by modelling populations of hosts and their gut microbiota into a single conceptual framework derived from nutritional geometry. Our approach raises new perspectives for the study of holobiont nutrition and will facilitate theoretical and experimental research on the role of the gut microbiota in the mechanisms and evolution of social behavior.


2017 ◽  
Vol 114 (8) ◽  
pp. 1958-1963 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marijke Versteven ◽  
Lies Vanden Broeck ◽  
Bart Geurten ◽  
Liesbeth Zwarts ◽  
Lisse Decraecker ◽  
...  

Aggression is a universal social behavior important for the acquisition of food, mates, territory, and social status. Aggression inDrosophilais context-dependent and can thus be expected to involve inputs from multiple sensory modalities. Here, we use mechanical disruption and genetic approaches inDrosophila melanogasterto identify hearing as an important sensory modality in the context of intermale aggressive behavior. We demonstrate that neuronal silencing and targeted knockdown of hearing genes in the fly’s auditory organ elicit abnormal aggression. Further, we show that exposure to courtship or aggression song has opposite effects on aggression. Our data define the importance of hearing in the control ofDrosophilaintermale aggression and open perspectives to decipher how hearing and other sensory modalities are integrated at the neural circuit level.


2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (13) ◽  
pp. 4601
Author(s):  
Ryley T. Yost ◽  
J. Wesley Robinson ◽  
Carling M. Baxter ◽  
Andrew M. Scott ◽  
Liam P. Brown ◽  
...  

Social interactions are typically impaired in neuropsychiatric disorders such as autism, for which the genetic underpinnings are very complex. Social interactions can be modeled by analysis of behaviors, including social spacing, sociability, and aggression, in simpler organisms such as Drosophila melanogaster. Here, we examined the effects of mutants of the autism-related gene neuroligin 3 (nlg3) on fly social and non-social behaviors. Startled-induced negative geotaxis is affected by a loss of function nlg3 mutation. Social space and aggression are also altered in a sex- and social-experience-specific manner in nlg3 mutant flies. In light of the conserved roles that neuroligins play in social behavior, our results offer insight into the regulation of social behavior in other organisms, including humans.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Inês S. Pais ◽  
Rita S. Valente ◽  
Marta Sporniak ◽  
Luis Teixeira

AbstractAnimals live together with diverse bacteria that can impact their biology. InDrosophila melanogaster, gut-associated bacterial communities are relatively simple in composition but also have a strong impact on host development and physiology. However, it is still unknown if bacteria can proliferate and stably associate with the gut ofD. melanogaster. In fact, it is generally assumed that bacteria are transient and their constant ingestion with food is required to maintain their presence in the gut. Here, we identify bacterial species from wild-caughtD. melanogasterthat stably associate with the host independently of continuous inoculation. Moreover, we show that specificAcetobacterwild isolates can proliferate in the gut. We further demonstrate that the interaction betweenD. melanogasterand the wild isolatedAcetobacter thailandicusis mutually beneficial and that the stability of the gut association is key to this mutualism. The stable population in the gut ofD. melanogasterallows continuous bacterial spreading into the environment, which is advantageous to the bacterium itself. The bacterial dissemination is in turn advantageous to the host since the next generation of flies develops in the presence of this particularly beneficial bacterium.Ac. thailandicusleads to a faster host development and higher fertility of emerging adults, when compared to other bacteria isolated from wild-caught flies. Furthermore,Ac. thailandicusis sufficient and advantageous whenD. melanogasterdevelops in axenic or freshly collected figs, respectively. This isolate ofAc. thailandicuscolonizes several genotypes ofD. melanogasterbut not of the closely relatedDrosophila simulans, indicating that the stable association is host specific. This work establishes a new conceptual model to understandD. melanogaster- gut microbiota interactions in an ecological context; stable interactions can be mutualistic through microbial farming, a common strategy in insects. Moreover, these results develop the use ofD. melanogasteras a model to study gut microbiota proliferation and colonization.Author summaryAnimals, including humans, live together with complex bacterial communities in their gut that influence their physiology and health. The fruit flyDrosophila melanogasterhas been an excellent model organism to study host-microbe interactions and harbours a relative simple gut bacterial community. However, it is not known which of these bacteria can proliferate and form stable communities in the gut, and the current hypothesis is that these bacteria are only transiently associated with the gut. Here, we show that inD. melanogastercollected from a natural population stable gut bacteria do exist. We isolated specific species that can proliferate in the gut and form a stable association. This is beneficial to the bacteria since they can be constantly spread by the flies as they move around. On the other hand, this is a form of farming as the next generation of flies benefit from the association with these particular bacteria during development. They become adults faster and are more fertile than if they develop with other bacteria encountered in nature. These advantages are also observed when flies develop in figs, a natural food source. Our findings show thatD. melanogasterhas stable colonizing bacteria in the gut and establish a new framework to study host-gut bacteria interactions.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Y Liu ◽  
AL Heath ◽  
B Galland ◽  
N Rehrer ◽  
L Drummond ◽  
...  

© 2020 American Society for Microbiology. Dietary fiber provides growth substrates for bacterial species that belong to the colonic microbiota of humans. The microbiota degrades and ferments substrates, producing characteristic short-chain fatty acid profiles. Dietary fiber contains plant cell wall-associated polysaccharides (hemicelluloses and pectins) that are chemically diverse in composition and structure. Thus, depending on plant sources, dietary fiber daily presents the microbiota with mixtures of plant polysaccharides of various types and complexity. We studied the extent and preferential order in which mixtures of plant polysaccharides (arabinoxylan, xyloglucan, β-glucan, and pectin) were utilized by a coculture of five bacterial species (Bacteroides ovatus, Bifidobacterium longum subspecies longum, Megasphaera elsdenii, Ruminococcus gnavus, and Veillonella parvula). These species are members of the human gut microbiota and have the biochemical capacity, collectively, to degrade and ferment the polysaccharides and produce short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs). B. ovatus utilized glycans in the order β-glucan, pectin, xyloglucan, and arabinoxylan, whereas B. longum subsp. longum utilization was in the order arabinoxylan, arabinan, pectin, and β-glucan. Propionate, as a proportion of total SCFAs, was augmented when polysaccharide mixtures contained galactan, resulting in greater succinate production by B. ovatus and conversion of succinate to propionate by V. parvula. Overall, we derived a synthetic ecological community that carries out SCFA production by the common pathways used by bacterial species for this purpose. Systems like this might be used to predict changes to the emergent properties of the gut ecosystem when diet is altered, with the aim of beneficially affecting human physiology. This study addresses the question as to how bacterial species, characteristic of the human gut microbiota, collectively utilize mixtures of plant polysaccharides such as are found in dietary fiber. Five bacterial species with the capacity to degrade polymers and/or produce acidic fermentation products detectable in human feces were used in the experiments. The bacteria showed preferential use of certain polysaccharides over others for growth, and this influenced their fermentation output qualitatively. These kinds of studies are essential in developing concepts of how the gut microbial community shares habitat resources, directly and indirectly, when presented with mixtures of polysaccharides that are found in human diets. The concepts are required in planning dietary interventions that might correct imbalances in the functioning of the human microbiota so as to support measures to reduce metabolic conditions such as obesity.


2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 498-506 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pavan K. Mujawdiya ◽  
Suman Kapur

: Quorum Sensing (QS) is a phenomenon in which bacterial cells communicate with each other with the help of several low molecular weight compounds. QS is largely dependent on population density, and it triggers when the concentration of quorum sensing molecules accumulate in the environment and crosses a particular threshold. Once a certain population density is achieved and the concentration of molecules crosses a threshold, the bacterial cells show a collective behavior in response to various chemical stimuli referred to as “auto-inducers”. The QS signaling is crucial for several phenotypic characteristics responsible for bacterial survival such as motility, virulence, and biofilm formation. Biofilm formation is also responsible for making bacterial cells resistant to antibiotics. : The human gut is home to trillions of bacterial cells collectively called “gut microbiota” or “gut microbes”. Gut microbes are a consortium of more than 15,000 bacterial species and play a very crucial role in several body functions such as metabolism, development and maturation of the immune system, and the synthesis of several essential vitamins. Due to its critical role in shaping human survival and its modulating impact on body metabolisms, the gut microbial community has been referred to as “the forgotten organ” by O`Hara et al. (2006) [1]. Several studies have demonstrated that chemical interaction between the members of bacterial cells in the gut is responsible for shaping the overall microbial community. : Recent advances in phytochemical research have generated a lot of interest in finding new, effective, and safer alternatives to modern chemical-based medicines. In the context of antimicrobial research various plant extracts have been identified with Quorum Sensing Inhibitory (QSI) activities among bacterial cells. This review focuses on the mechanism of quorum sensing and quorum sensing inhibitors isolated from natural sources.


Molecules ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (13) ◽  
pp. 3907
Author(s):  
Sergio Pérez-Burillo ◽  
Beatriz Navajas-Porras ◽  
Alicia López-Maldonado ◽  
Daniel Hinojosa-Nogueira ◽  
Silvia Pastoriza ◽  
...  

Green tea can influence the gut microbiota by either stimulating the growth of specific species or by hindering the development of detrimental ones. At the same time, gut bacteria can metabolize green tea compounds and produce smaller bioactive molecules. Accordingly, green tea benefits could be due to beneficial bacteria or to microbial bioactive metabolites. Therefore, the gut microbiota is likely to act as middle man for, at least, some of the green tea benefits on health. Many health promoting effects of green tea seems to be related to the inter-relation between green tea and gut microbiota. Green tea has proven to be able to correct the microbial dysbiosis that appears during several conditions such as obesity or cancer. On the other hand, tea compounds influence the growth of bacterial species involved in inflammatory processes such as the release of LPS or the modulation of IL production; thus, influencing the development of different chronic diseases. There are many studies trying to link either green tea or green tea phenolic compounds to health benefits via gut microbiota. In this review, we tried to summarize the most recent research in the area.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 1037
Author(s):  
Craig Resch ◽  
Mihir Parikh ◽  
J. Alejandro Austria ◽  
Spencer D. Proctor ◽  
Thomas Netticadan ◽  
...  

There is an increased interest in the gut microbiota as it relates to health and obesity. The impact of diet and sex on the gut microbiota in conjunction with obesity also demands extensive systemic investigation. Thus, the influence of sex, diet, and flaxseed supplementation on the gut microbiota was examined in the JCR:LA-cp rat model of genetic obesity. Male and female obese rats were randomized into four groups (n = 8) to receive, for 12 weeks, either (a) control diet (Con), (b) control diet supplemented with 10% ground flaxseed (CFlax), (c) a high-fat, high sucrose (HFHS) diet, or (d) HFHS supplemented with 10% ground flaxseed (HFlax). Male and female JCR:LA-cp lean rats served as genetic controls and received similar dietary interventions. Illumine MiSeq sequencing revealed a richer microbiota in rats fed control diets rather than HFHS diets. Obese female rats had lower alpha-diversity than lean female; however, both sexes of obese and lean JCR rats differed significantly in β-diversity, as their gut microbiota was composed of different abundances of bacterial types. The feeding of an HFHS diet affected the diversity by increasing the phylum Bacteroidetes and reducing bacterial species from phylum Firmicutes. Fecal short-chain fatty acids such as acetate, propionate, and butyrate-producing bacterial species were correspondingly impacted by the HFHS diet. Flax supplementation improved the gut microbiota by decreasing the abundance of Blautia and Eubacterium dolichum. Collectively, our data show that an HFHS diet results in gut microbiota dysbiosis in a sex-dependent manner. Flaxseed supplementation to the diet had a significant impact on gut microbiota diversity under both flax control and HFHS dietary conditions.


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