Mono-Association withLactobacillus plantarumDisrupts Intestinal Homeostasis in adultDrosophila

Abstract

The microbiome of Drosophila promotes intestinal stem cell division through evolutionarily conserved biochemical pathways. As such, axenic flies have lower rates of gut stem cell division than age-matched wild type counterparts. Additionally, flies with a full consortium of symbiotic bacteria are shorter lived than those maintained in the absence of a microbiome. However, we do not know if stem cell division is essential for symbiontdependent regulation of adult fly lifespan. To determine if individual symbionts cause aging-dependent death in Drosophila, we examined the impacts of common symbionts on host longevity. In this study, we found that mono-association of adult Drosophila with Lactobacillus plantarum, a widely reported fly symbiont, and member of the probiotic Lactobacillus genus, curtails adult longevity relative to germ-free counterparts. However, the effects of plantarum on lifespan were independent of intestinal aging. Instead, we found that association with plantarum causes an extensive intestinal pathology within the host, characterized by loss of intestinal stem cells, impaired epithelial renewal, and a gradual erosion of epithelial integrity. Our study uncovers an unknown aspect of Lactobacillus plantarum-Drosophila interactions, and establishes a simple model to characterize symbiont-dependent disruption of intestinal homeostasis.

Short-Term, Intermittent Fasting Induces Long-Lasting Gut Health and TOR-Independent Lifespan Extension

“…We therefore compared relative bacterial abundance in 40-day-old (i.e., day 10 post-IF) whole females by qPCR of the bacterial 16S rRNA gene with pan bacterial and Lactobacillus - plantarum -specific primers. L. plantarum was chosen as it is one of the most abundant commensals in the adult fly, and it was also recently associated with loss of gut epithelial integrity in adults [ 52 ]. Relative bacterial abundance was significantly reduced in IF switch flies compared to ad libitum controls using both pan bacterial and L. plantarum primers ( Figure 3 I).…”

The role of commensal microbes in the lifespan of Drosophila melanogaster

“…Egg bleaching and antibiotic treatment are commonly used methods to generate Ax flies; regardless, our results suggest that the toxic effects of both of those methods should be considered when generating Ax flies. Most authors have not provided information about which fly generation after egg bleaching they used in their studies [11–13, 15, 27–29], and some tested antibiotics within a very narrow concentration window [11, 12, 17, 27, 28, 30] (see Supplementary Table 12). The inconsistencies in the results reported by different groups on the effect of eliminating microbes on host lifespan might be due to differences in the methods used for microbe elimination.…”

Correlation and causation between the microbiome, Wolbachia and host functional traits in natural populations of drosophilid flies

“…The correspondence between bacterial communities and the host transcriptome, the index of host functional traits in the mycophagous drosophilids studied here, did not conform to the simple “one bacterial taxon–one host trait” relationship identified in laboratory studies of the D. melanogaster microbiome, for example, Fast, Duggal, and Foley (), Schretter et al (), Shin et al (), and Storelli et al (). The greater complexity of the relationships in natural populations than in laboratory systems can be attributed to the higher diversity, both within and among flies, of associated microorganisms, as well as uncontrolled (and unknown) variation in age, genotype and physiological condition of the wild flies.…”