A Distinctive and Host-Restricted Gut Microbiota in Populations of a Cactophilic Drosophila Species.

ABSTRACT: Almost all animals possess gut microbial communities, but the nature of these communities varies immensely. For example, in social bees and mammals, the composition is relatively constant within species and is dominated by specialist bacteria that do not live elsewhere; in laboratory studies and field surveys of Drosophila melanogaster, however, gut communities consist of bacteria that are ingested with food and that vary widely among individuals and localities. We addressed whether an ecological specialist in its natural habitat has a microbiota dominated by gut specialists or by environmental bacteria. Drosophila nigrospiracula is a species that is endemic to the Sonoran Desert and is restricted to decaying tissues of two giant columnar cacti, Pachycereus pringlei (c

SUBMITTER: Martinson VG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5691420 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature