Viruses and Microorganisms Associated with African Drosophila
Drosophila melanogaster has its roots in the African continent and is estimated to have expanded from sub-Saharan Africa into Eurasia about 10,000 years. This was around the same time human commensalism of D. melanogaster is said to have occurred in the Matopos rainforest in Zimbabwe via the marula fruit, which was important in the diets of both the fruit flies and the hunter gatherers that occupied the region.  Metagenomic sequencing of wild Drosophila has revealed over 130 naturally occurring viruses spanning over 25 families. These studies have also shown that some natural African Drosophila viruses have a deeper evolutionary history than their European and Northern American counterparts, suggesting the importance of studying African Drosophila viruses to understand insect-virus coevolution. To discover the viruses and microorganisms associated with wild Drosophilidae we collected from The Gambia.We generated metagenomic libraries from individual Gambian flies and derived curated virus sequences from them. We discovered 27 new viruses associated with wild drosophilids including a DNA virus and both segmented and non-segmented RNA viruses, and their associated prevalences and host range.
Drosophila melanogaster has its roots in the African continent and is estimated to have expanded from sub-Saharan Africa into Eurasia about 10,000 years. This was around the same time human commensalism of D. melanogaster is said to have occurred in the Matopos rainforest in Zimbabwe via the marula fruit, which was important in the diets of both the fruit flies and the hunter gatherers that occupied the region.  Metagenomic sequencing of wild Drosophila has revealed over 130 naturally occurring viruses spanning over 25 families. These studies have also shown that some natural African Drosophila viruses have a deeper evolutionary history than their European and Northern American counterparts, suggesting the importance of studying African Drosophila viruses to understand insect-virus coevolution. To discover the viruses and microorganisms associated with wild Drosophilidae we collected from The Gambia.We generated metagenomic libraries from individual Gambian flies and derived curated virus sequences from them. We discovered 27 new viruses associated with wild drosophilids including a DNA virus and both segmented and non-segmented RNA viruses, and their associated prevalences and host range.
Institute of Ecology and Evolution