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

ABSTRACT: Parent-to-offspring transmission of beneficial microorganisms is intimately interwoven with the evolution of social behaviors. Ancestral stages of complex sociality-microbe vectoring interrelationships may be characterized by high costs of intensive parental care and hence only a weak link between the transmission of microbial symbionts and offspring production. We investigate the relationship between yeast symbiont transmission and egg-laying, as well as some general factors thought to drive the "farming" of microscopic fungi by the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, an insect with no obvious parental care but which is highly dependent on dietary microbes during offspring development. The process of transmitting microbes involves flies ingesting microbes from their previous environ

SUBMITTER: Cho H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10276349 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature