title: Comparative Analysis of Drosophila melanogaster Gut Microbiota with Respect to Host Strain, Sex, and Age.
abstract: Microbiota has a significant impact on the health of the host individual. The complexity of the interactions between mammalian hosts and their microbiota highlights the value of using Drosophila melanogaster as a model organism, because of its relatively simple microbial community and ease of physiological and genetic manipulation. However, highly variable and sometimes inconsistent results regarding the microbiota of D. melanogaster have been reported for host samples collected from different geographical locations; discrepancies that may be because of the inherent physiological conditions of the D. melanogaster host. Here, we conducted a comparative analysis of the gut microbiota of two D. melanogaster laboratory strains, w1118and Canton S, with respect to the sex and age of the host, by pyrosequencing of the 16S rRNA gene. In addition to the widespread and abundant commensal bacterial genera Lactobacillus and Acetobacter, we identified Enterococcus and Leuconostoc as major host-strain-specific bacterial genera. The relative proportions of these bacterial genera, and those of the species within each, were found to differ markedly with respect to strain, sex, and age of the host, even though host individuals were reared under the same nutritional conditions. By using various bioinformatic tools, we uncovered several characteristic features of microbiota corresponding to specific categories of the flies: host-sex-bias association of specific bacteria, age-dependent alteration of microbiota across host species and sex, and uniqueness of the microbiota of female w1118flies. Our results, thus, help to further our understanding of host-microbe interactions in the D. melanogaster model.
authors.affiliation: Department of Life Science, Chung-Ang University, Seoul, 06974, South Korea.
authors.forename: Gangsik
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Han
authors.affiliation: Department of Life Science, Chung-Ang University, Seoul, 06974, South Korea.
authors.forename: Hyo Jung
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Department of Life Science, Chung-Ang University, Seoul, 06974, South Korea.
authors.forename: Sang Eun
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Jeong
authors.affiliation: Department of Life Science, Chung-Ang University, Seoul, 06974, South Korea. cojeon@cau.ac.kr.
authors.forename: Che Ok
authors.initials: CO
authors.lastname: Jeon
authors.affiliation: Department of Life Science, Chung-Ang University, Seoul, 06974, South Korea. sghyun@cau.ac.kr.
authors.forename: Seogang
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hyun
mesh_terms: D000091:Acetobacter; D000367:Age Factors; D000818:Animals; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster / Q000382:microbiology*; D005260:Female; D000069196:Gastrointestinal Microbiome; D008297:Male; D064307:Microbiota; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S / Q000235:genetics; D012737:Sex Factors
chemical_list: D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S
keywords: 16S rRNA; Bray-Curtis dissimilarity; Drosophila melanogaster; Gut microbiota; Linear discriminant analysis coupled with effect size measurements; Principal component analysis; Pyrosequencing