Yeast and fruit fly mutual niche construction and antagonism against mould

Abstract

1. A goal in insect-microbe ecology is to understand the mechanisms regulating species associations and mutualistic interactions.2. The spotted wing drosophila Drosophila suzukii develops in ripening fruit, unlike other drosophilids that typically feed on overripe fruit, and is associated with the yeast Hanseniaspora uvarum.3. We hypothesized that D. suzukii and H. uvarum engage in niche construction leading to a mutualistic relation, facilitating the exploitation of fruit and berries as larval substrate.4. We show that H. uvarum proliferates on both ripe and on unripe raspberries, mediates attraction of D. suzukii larvae and adult flies, enhances egg-laying in mated females and is a sufficient food substrate to support larval development.Moreover, H. uvarum suppresses the antagonistic grey mould, Botrytis cinerea in collaboration with D. suzukii larvae, and produces less ethanol than baker's yeast. H. uvarum thus creates favourable conditions for D. suzukii larval development, which is susceptible to ethanol and grey mould. 5. D. suzukii, on the other hand, vectors H. uvarum to suitable substrates such as raspberries, where larval feeding activity enhances growth of H. uvarum. Larval feeding also helps to suppress B. cinerea, which otherwise outcompetes H. uvarum on raspberry, in the absence of fly larvae. 6. In conclusion, H. uvarum enhances D. suzukii larval development on unripe berries, and D. suzukii promotes H. uvarum dispersal and growth on berries. Yeast

Invasive Drosophila suzukii outnumbers native controphics and causes substantial damage to fruits of forest plants

“…In addition, moulds (filamentous fungi), an important competitor of Drosophila larvae (Wertheim et al 2002;Trienens et al 2010), generally exhibit better growth in a lower pH environment (Zhao et al 2020). This could have led to a lower attractiveness for D. suzukii in our study, as decreased egg deposition in response to grey mould (Botrytis cinerea) was observed in a recent study (Chakraborty et al 2022).…”

Factors influencing oviposition behaviour of the invasive pest, Drosophila suzukii, derived from interactions with other Drosophila species: potential applications for control

“…Adult and larval stages of D. suzukii showed a preference for the yeast H. uvarum on food sources. [85][86][87][88] Hanseniaspora uvarum also increases the fecundity of female D. suzukii. 89 Drosophila suzukii female laid more eggs on H. uvarum-inoculated blueberries and are more attracted to H. uvarum volatiles compared to volatiles of S. cerevisiae or Pichia terricola.…”

“…Adult and larval stages of D. suzukii showed a preference for the yeast H. uvarum on food sources 85–88 . Hanseniaspora uvarum also increases the fecundity of female D. suzukii 89 .…”

“…Hanseniaspora uvarum also increases the fecundity of female D. suzukii 89 . Drosophila suzukii female laid more eggs on H. uvarum ‐inoculated blueberries and are more attracted to H. uvarum volatiles compared to volatiles of S. cerevisiae or Pichia terricola 88 . Utilising this preference, H. uvarum yeast has been combined with insecticides as part of successful attract and kill approaches to reduce D. suzukii populations 90–92 .…”

Transmission of beneficial yeasts accompanies offspring production in Drosophila—An initial evolutionary stage of insect maternal care through manipulation of microbial load?

“…To investigate these assumptions, D. melanogaster flies were mono-associated with H. uvarum. Based on previous studies (Chakraborty et al, 2022;Chandler et al, 2012;Hamby et al, 2012), H. uvarum in particular appears to be widespread and common in Drosophila populations, which is why we generated gnotobiotic flies with H. uvarum in all other experiments conducted in this study. To achieve mono-association, axenic D. melanogaster larvae were individually raised in 2 mL polypropylene micro-vials filled with 1 mL sterile artificial rearing medium.…”