scholarly journals Social environment drives sex and age‐specific variation in Drosophila melanogaster microbiome composition and predicted function

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Leech ◽  
Laurin McDowall ◽  
Kevin P. Hopkins ◽  
Steven M. Sait ◽  
Xavier A. Harrison ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Drosophila Melanogaster ◽  
Social Environment ◽  
Microbiome Composition ◽  
Specific Variation ◽  
Predicted Function

scholarly journals Social environment drives sex and age-specific variation in Drosophila melanogaster microbiome composition and predicted function

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Leech ◽  
Laurin McDowall ◽  
Kevin P Hopkins ◽  
Steven M Sait ◽  
Xavier A. Harrison ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Drosophila Melanogaster ◽  
Social Environment ◽  
Social Contact ◽  
Social Effects ◽  
Social Environments ◽  
Microbiome Composition ◽  
Individual Health ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Partners ◽  
Host Health

AbstractSocial environments influence multiple traits of individuals including immunity, stress and ageing, often in sex-specific ways. The composition of the microbiome (the assemblage of symbiotic microorganisms within a host) is determined by environmental factors and the host’s immune, endocrine and neural systems. The social environment could alter host microbiomes extrinsically by affecting transmission between individuals, likely promoting homogeneity in the microbiome of social partners. Alternatively, intrinsic effects arising from interactions between the microbiome and host physiology (the microbiota-gut-brain axis) could translate social stress into dysbiotic microbiomes, with consequences for host health. We investigated how manipulating social environments during larval and adult life-stages altered the microbiome composition of Drosophila melanogaster fruit flies. We used social contexts that particularly alter the development and lifespan of males, predicting that any intrinsic social effects on the microbiome would therefore be sex-specific. The presence of adult males during the larval stage significantly altered the microbiome of pupae of both sexes. In adults, same-sex grouping increased bacterial diversity in both sexes. Importantly, the microbiome community structure of males was more sensitive to social contact at older ages, an effect partially mitigated by housing focal males with young rather than co-aged groups. Functional analyses suggest that these microbiome changes impact ageing and immune responses. This is consistent with the hypothesis that the substantial effects of the social environment on individual health are mediated through intrinsic effects on the microbiome, and provides a model for understanding the mechanistic basis of the microbiota-gut-brain axis.Significance statementThe social environment has pervasive, multifaceted effects on individual health and fitness. If a host’s microbiome is sensitive to the social environment then it could be an important mediator of social effects, as the reciprocal relationships between hosts and their microbiomes have substantial implications for host health. Using a Drosophila melanogaster fruit fly model we show that the fly microbiome is sensitive to the social environment in a sex, age and life-stage dependent manner. In particular, older adult male microbiome communities are altered by same-sex social contact, but this depends on the age of the social partners. These changes have functional effects on fly immunity and lifespan, evidence that indeed this is an influential mediator of social effects on health.

scholarly journals Characterization of the genetic architecture underlying eye size variation within Drosophila melanogaster and Drosophila simulans

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pedro Gaspar ◽  
Saad Arif ◽  
Lauren Sumner-Rooney ◽  
Maike Kittelmann ◽  
Andrew J. Bodey ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Drosophila Melanogaster ◽  
Natural Variation ◽  
Size Variation ◽  
Eye Size ◽  
Specific Variation ◽  
Gene Regulatory ◽  
Morphological Differences ◽  
Genomic Regions ◽  
Insect Eye

AbstractThe compound eyes of insects exhibit striking variation in size, reflecting adaptation to different lifestyles and habitats. However, the genetic and developmental bases of variation in insect eye size is poorly understood, which limits our understanding of how these important morphological differences evolve. To address this, we further explored natural variation in eye size within and between four species of the Drosophila melanogaster species subgroup. We found extensive variation in eye size among these species, and flies with larger eyes generally had a shorter inter-ocular distance and vice versa. We then carried out quantitative trait loci (QTL) mapping of intra-specific variation in eye size and inter-ocular distance in both D. melanogaster and D. simulans. This revealed that different genomic regions underlie variation in eye size and inter-ocular distance in both species, which we corroborated by introgression mapping in D. simulans. This suggests that although there is a trade-off between eye size and inter-ocular distance, variation in these two traits is likely to be caused by different genes and so can be genetically decoupled. Finally, although we detected QTL for intra-specific variation in eye size at similar positions in D. melanogaster and D. simulans, we observed differences in eye fate commitment between strains of these two species. This indicates that different developmental mechanisms and therefore, most likely, different genes contribute to eye size variation in these species. Taken together with the results of previous studies, our findings suggest that the gene regulatory network that specifies eye size has evolved at multiple genetic nodes to give rise to natural variation in this trait within and among species.

Genetic, ontogenetic, and tissue-specific variation of dipeptidases in Drosophila melanogaster

1982 ◽  
Vol 20 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 407-424 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. C. Laurie-Ahlberg
Keyword(s):  
Drosophila Melanogaster ◽  
Tissue Specific ◽  
Specific Variation

Tissue-specific variation in Hsp70 expression and thermal damage in Drosophila melanogaster larvae.

1997 ◽  
Vol 200 (14) ◽  
pp. 2007-2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
R A Krebs ◽  
M E Feder
Keyword(s):  
Drosophila Melanogaster ◽  
Heat Shock ◽  
Trypan Blue ◽  
Fat Body ◽  
Malpighian Tubules ◽  
Blue Staining ◽  
Hsp70 Expression ◽  
Shock Temperature ◽  
Specific Variation ◽  
Imaginal Disks

All tissues of larval Drosophila melanogaster express Hsp70, the major heat-shock protein of this species, after both mild (36 degrees C) and severe (38.5 degrees C) heat shock. We used Hsp70-specific immunofluorescence to compare the rate and intensity of Hsp70 expression in various tissues after these two heat-shock treatments, and to compare this with related differences in the intensity of Trypan Blue staining shown by the tissues. Trypan Blue is a marker of tissue damage. Hsp70 was rarely detectable before heat shock. Brain, salivary glands, imaginal disks and hindgut expressed Hsp70 within the first hour of heat shock, whereas gut tissues, fat body and Malpighian tubules did not express Hsp70 until 4-21 h after heat shock. Differences in Hsp70 expression between tissues were more pronounced at the higher heat-shock temperature. Tissues that expressed Hsp70 slowly stained most intensely with Trypan Blue. Gut stained especially intensely, which suggests that its sensitivity to heat shock may limit larval thermotolerance. These patterns further suggest that some cells respond primarily to damage caused by heat shock rather than to elevated temperature per se and/or that Hsp70 expression is itself damaged by heat and requires time for recovery in some tissues.

scholarly journals Sex-specific variation in the emphasis, inducibility and timing of the post-mating immune response in Drosophila melanogaster

2008 ◽  
Vol 276 (1659) ◽  
pp. 1109-1117 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wade E Winterhalter ◽  
Kenneth M Fedorka
Keyword(s):  
Immune Response ◽  
Drosophila Melanogaster ◽  
Immune System ◽  
Temporal Dynamics ◽  
Major Gene ◽  
Gene Families ◽  
Gram Negative ◽  
Defence Genes ◽  
Specific Variation ◽  
Males And Females

Ecological immunology attempts to explain variation in immune function. Much of this work makes predictions about how potential hosts should invest in overall immunity. However, this ‘overall’ perspective under-emphasizes other critical aspects, such as the specificity, inducibility and timing of an immune response. Here, we investigate these aspects by examining gene regulation across several immune system components in both male and female Drosophila melanogaster prior to and after mating. To elucidate potentially important temporal dynamics, we also assayed several genes over time. We found that males and females emphasized different components of their immune system, however overall investment was similar. Specifically, the sexes emphasized different gene paralogues within major gene families, and males tended to invest more in gram-negative defence. By contrast, the inducibility of the immune response was both transient (lasting approx. 24 hours) and equal between the sexes. Furthermore, mating tended to induce humoral gene upregulation, while cell-mediated genes were unaffected. Within the humoral system, gram-negative bacterial defence genes exhibited a greater inducibility than those associated with fungal or gram-positive bacterial defence. Our results suggest that variation in the effectiveness of the immune response between the sexes may be driven by differences in emphasis rather than overall investment.

scholarly journals Individual, but not population asymmetries, are modulated by social environment and genotype in Drosophila melanogaster

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisabetta Versace ◽  
Matteo Caffini ◽  
Zach Werkhoven ◽  
Benjamin L. de Bivort
Keyword(s):  
Drosophila Melanogaster ◽  
Social Environment
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