Social communication of predator-induced changes in Drosophila behavior and germ line physiology

Kacsoh, Balint Z.; Bozler, Julianna; Ramaswami, Mani; Bosco, Giovanni

doi:10.7554/elife.07423

Cited by 82 publications

(161 citation statements)

References 59 publications

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“…For example, fruit fly ( Drosophila sp.) and ladybird beetle (Adalia bipunctata) females altered timing of egg laying and total egg number under conditions of simulated predation risk . Similarly, we found that female Q‐flies laid fewer eggs when predators were present.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 54%

“…The presence of predators is known to influence the egg‐laying behaviour of a number of prey species . For example, fruit fly ( Drosophila sp.)…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The presence of irradiated males significantly reduced the egg‐hatching rate of Q‐flies, which is the basis of SIT programmes for Tephritid fruit flies including Q‐fly . Irradiation triggers dominant lethal mutations in fly sperm causing reproductive sterility.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Effect of natural predators on Queensland fruit fly, Bactrocera tryoni (Froggatt) (Diptera: Tephritidae) control by sterile insect technique (SIT)

Rathnayake

Lowe

Rempoulakis

et al. 2019

Pest Management Science

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BACKGROUND Queensland fruit fly (Q‐fly) is a destructive insect pest that infests a wide variety of agricultural plants in Australia. The sterile insect technique (SIT) is used to manage Q‐flies, but the effectiveness of SIT has not been tested in the presence of natural predators. The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of natural predators and SIT on the survival and reproduction of laboratory reared Q‐flies under semi‐natural conditions. We altered the presence of predators and irradiated Q‐fly males, and measured survival, number of eggs laid and egg‐hatching rate. RESULTS The presence of natural predators significantly affected the survival of Q‐flies and appeared to decrease the number of eggs laid. Interestingly, we found that both sterile and fertile males were more prone to predation than females, but we found no difference among males. The presence of sterile males significantly reduced Q‐fly fertility, but the interaction of natural predators and sterile males did not significantly reduce the number of fertile eggs. CONCLUSION Our findings highlight the important role of natural predators in controlling Q‐flies together with SIT and provide a solid foundation for similar large‐scale field trials using wild counterparts. © 2019 Society of Chemical Industry

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 54%

“…The presence of predators is known to influence the egg‐laying behaviour of a number of prey species . For example, fruit fly ( Drosophila sp.)…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Effect of natural predators on Queensland fruit fly, Bactrocera tryoni (Froggatt) (Diptera: Tephritidae) control by sterile insect technique (SIT)

Rathnayake

Lowe

Rempoulakis

et al. 2019

Pest Management Science

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“…Interestingly, Kacsoh et al . () found that Drosophila can use a simple visual cue to initiate programmed cell death within the ovary of another fly. We found that honey bee workers exposed to queen pheromone have a higher level of caspase activity in the ovary compared with non‐exposed workers.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Our study shows that the social environment of an organism, signalled via a pheromone, can influence programmed cell death within a specific tissue. Interestingly, Kacsoh et al (2015) found that Drosophila can use a simple visual cue to initiate programmed cell death within the ovary of another fly. We found that honey bee workers exposed to queen pheromone have a higher level of caspase activity in the ovary compared with nonexposed workers.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Queen pheromone regulates programmed cell death in the honey bee worker ovary

Ronai

Oldroyd

Vergoz

2016

Insect Molecular Biology

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In social insect colonies the presence of a queen, secreting her pheromones, is a key environmental cue for regulating the reproductive state of workers. However, until recently the proximate molecular mechanisms underlying facultative worker sterility were unidentified. Studies into worker oogenesis in the honey bee (Apis mellifera) have indicated that programmed cell death is central to the regulation of oogenesis. Here we investigate how queen pheromone, age of the worker and ovary state affect both programmed cell death and cell number in worker ovaries. We describe a novel method to simultaneously measure programmed cell death (caspase activity) and live cell number (estimated from the amount of adenosine triphosphate) in an insect tissue. Workers exposed to queen pheromone have higher levels of caspase activity in the ovary than those not exposed. Our results suggest that queen pheromone triggers programmed cell death at the mid-oogenesis checkpoint causing the abortion of worker oocytes and reproductive inhibition of the worker caste. Nonetheless, high caspase activity is present in activated ovaries from workers not exposed to queen pheromone. This caspase activity is most likely to be from the nurse cells undergoing programmed cell death, in late oogenesis, for normal oocyte development. Our study shows that the social environment of an organism can influence programmed cell death within a tissue.

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Evaluating Learning and Memory in Drosophila melanogaster to Study the Neurodevelopmental Impacts of Toxicants

Welch

Mulligan

2022

Current Protocols

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Neurodevelopmental disorders are a heterogeneous group of behaviorally defined disorders with both genetic and environmental risk factors. Given that many neurodevelopmental disorders are characterized by impaired learning and/or intellectual abilities, behavioral paradigms that assess cognition in animal models have been effective tools in delineating underlying genetic variants that impact disease pathophysiology. For example, learning and memory paradigms in the common fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster have been successfully used to study risk genes and biological pathways associated with several neurodevelopmental disorders, including fragile X syndrome, autism spectrum disorder, and CHARGE syndrome. While these established Drosophila behavioral paradigms have historically been used to investigate genetic risk factors, they also have many other applications, including use in developmental neurotoxicology studies to determine environmental risk factors for neurodevelopmental disorders. There is, however, a deficit of step‐by‐step protocols that describe how to apply learning and memory assays in fruit flies to developmental neurotoxicology studies. Here, we describe two quantitative behavioral paradigms for Drosophila—predator‐induced oviposition and courtship conditioning—that can be used to measure different forms of learning and memory in the context of a developmental neurotoxicology study. Non‐associative learning and memory are measured here by examining female Drosophila oviposition behavior in response to endoparasitoid wasps, while associative learning and memory are measured in males using courtship conditioning. Our protocols outline procedures for oral toxicant exposure of developing fruit flies, culturing of endoparasitoid wasps, measuring Drosophila oviposition activity, and assessing conditioned courtship in order to identify the impact of toxicants on learning and memory in both females and males. As an example, we present the protocols using bisphenol A, a chemical utilized in the synthesis of polycarbonate plastics, to determine its impacts on learning and memory. These protocols are inexpensive and relatively simple to perform, and can be used by labs that are new to Drosophila behavioral research to evaluate how toxicant exposure influences learning and memory in male and female flies. © 2022 Wiley Periodicals LLC. Basic Protocol 1: Preparation of toxicant‐containing food and developmental exposure Basic Protocol 2: Predator‐induced oviposition assay Support Protocol: Culture of Leptopilina heterotoma Basic Protocol 3: Conditioned courtship assay

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Social communication of predator-induced changes in Drosophila behavior and germ line physiology

Cited by 82 publications

References 59 publications

Effect of natural predators on Queensland fruit fly, Bactrocera tryoni (Froggatt) (Diptera: Tephritidae) control by sterile insect technique (SIT)

Effect of natural predators on Queensland fruit fly, Bactrocera tryoni (Froggatt) (Diptera: Tephritidae) control by sterile insect technique (SIT)

Queen pheromone regulates programmed cell death in the honey bee worker ovary

Evaluating Learning and Memory in Drosophila melanogaster to Study the Neurodevelopmental Impacts of Toxicants

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