Drosophila Genotype Influences Commensal Bacterial Levels.

ABSTRACT: Host genotype can influence the composition of the commensal bacterial community in some organisms. Composition, however, is only one parameter describing a microbial community. Here, we test whether a second parameter-abundance of bacteria-is a heritable trait by quantifying the presence of four commensal bacterial strains within 36 gnotobiotic inbred lines of Drosophila melanogaster. We find that D. melanogaster genotype exerts a significant effect on microbial levels within the fly. When introduced as monocultures into axenic flies, three of the four bacterial strains were reliably detected within the fly. The amounts of these different strains are strongly correlated, suggesting that the host regulates commensal bacteria through general, not bacteria-specific, means. While the correlat

SUBMITTER: Early AM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5240971 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature