Low‐diversity bacterial community in the gut of the fruitfly Drosophila melanogaster

Abstract

Summary The bacteria in the fruitfly Drosophila melanogaster of different life stages was quantified by 454 pyrosequencing of 16S rRNA gene amplicons. The sequence reads were dominated by 5 operational taxonomic units (OTUs) at ≤ 97% sequence identity that could be assigned to Acetobacter pomorum, A. tropicalis, Lactobacillus brevis, L. fructivorans and L. plantarum. The saturated rarefaction curves and species richness indices indicated that the sampling (85 000–159 000 reads per sample) was comprehensive. Parallel diagnostic PCR assays revealed only minor variation in the complement of the five bacterial species across individual insects and three D. melanogaster strains. Other gut-associated bacteria included 6 OTUs with low %ID to previously reported sequences, raising the possibility that they represent novel taxa within the genera Acetobacter and Lactobacillus. A developmental change in the most abundant species, from L. fructivorans in young adults to A. pomorum in aged adults was identified; changes in gut oxygen tension or immune system function might account for this effect. Host immune responses and disturbance may also contribute to the low bacterial diversity in the Drosophila gut habitat.

The dual oxidase gene BdDuox regulates the intestinal bacterial community homeostasis of Bactrocera dorsalis

“…This contrasts with Drosophila, in which the bacterial community, at least under laboratory conditions, is rather unstable and composed of few members (Wong et al, 2011;Broderick et al, 2014). In this study, we found that the composition and richness of the gut microbial community changed markedly in BdDuox-RNAi flies.…”

“…The bacterial composition of the ds-egfp-injected flies was also drastically changed from immature (5 DPR), middle age (15 DPR) and fully mature (20 DPR) B. dorsalis; the reasons might be because of the age change in the fly. In fact, the fluctuation of bacterial composition throughout adult life has been previously reported in A. gambiae and Drosophila melanogaster (Wong et al, 2011).…”

Integrating nutrition and immunology: A new frontier

“…Gut microbes also play a role in invertebrate biology (Dillon and Dillon, 2003) and digestive process [Brune, 2011 [Lundgren, 2010, and recently the composition of microbe gut populations has been described in a variety of insect species, including bees (Jeyaprakash et al, 2003;Mohr and Tebbe, 2006), beetles (Egert et al, 2005;Lehman et al, 2009;Nardi et al, 2006;Zhang and Jackson, 2008), flies (Cox and Gilmore, 2007;Ren et al, 2007;Ryu et al, 2008;Shin et al, 2011;Wong et al, 2011), lepidopterans (Pauchet et al, 2010;Xiang et al, 2006) and termites (Hongoh et al, 2003). In Drosophila, the microbiome regulates host metabolic homeostatic and developmental programs by modulating the insulin/insulin-like growth factor (Shin et al, 2011).…”

The inconstant gut microbiota of Drosophila species revealed by 16S rRNA gene analysis

“…The gut microbiota in these insects has been reported to include Proteobacteria (especially Acetobacteraceae and Enterobacteriaceae) and Firmicutes of the order Lactobacillales (notably Lactobacillus and Enterococcus species). Despite regional variation in conditions (pH, redox potential and so on) in the gut (Shanbhag and Tripathi, 2009), bacteria occur in the crop, midgut and hindgut, with densities up to 10 6 cells per fly (Corby-Harris et al, 2007;Cox and Gilmore, 2007;Ren et al, 2007;Roh et al, 2008;Sharon et al, 2010;Chandler et al, 2011;Storelli et al, 2011;Wong et al, 2011). Elimination of the gut bacteria can result in delayed larval development, altered lifespan and changes in nutrient allocation attributable to disruption in insect insulin signaling (Brummel et al, 2004;Shin et al, 2011;Storelli et al, 2011;Ridley et al, 2012).…”