Interaction Between Familial Transmission and a Constitutively Active Immune System Shapes Gut Microbiota in Drosophila melanogaster.

ABSTRACT: Resident gut bacteria are constantly influencing the immune system, yet the role of the immune system in shaping microbiota composition during an organism's life span has remained unclear. Experiments in mice have been inconclusive due to differences in husbandry schemes that led to conflicting results. We used Drosophila as a genetically tractable system with a simpler gut bacterial population structure streamlined genetic backgrounds and established cross schemes to address this issue. We found that, depending on their genetic background, young flies had microbiota of different diversities that converged with age to the same Acetobacteraceae-dominated pattern in healthy flies. This pattern was accelerated in immune-compromised flies with higher bacterial load and gut cell death. N

SUBMITTER: Mistry R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5499193 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature