Publicação
Identification and comparison of laboratory and wild caught Drosophila gut microbiota
| Resumo: | The digestive tract is constantly in contact with several microorganisms that constitute the gut microbiota. The crucial role this microbial community, both in mammals and in insects, plays in the host physiology is starting to be revealed. The microbiota affects the host nutrition, developmental process and immune system. We can discriminate between two types of microorganisms inside the gut: indigenous microorganisms that colonize the host and transient microorganisms that are acquired from the environment and food. Insects that are found in the nature and reared under laboratory conditions may present differences in the gut microbiota composition. This has also been reported in Drosophila melanogaster, where it is still not clear whether the flora found in the digestive tract establishes a symbiotic relationship with the host or if it is continuously loaded with the ingested food. Here, we attempt to characterize the microbial community and its stability inside the gut of Drosophila melanogaster, both reared under laboratory conditions and collected from nature. We observe more diversity in wild caught flies, compared with laboratory flies. We show that the microbiota of laboratory-reared flies’ guts is not stable and almost disappears when flies are fed with sterile food. Moreover, we show that these bacteria grow on the flies’ food. In contrast, wild caught flies microbiota is able to persist inside the gut, even when flies were fed with sterile food. Conditions were established to rear axenic flies in order to perform future infections with wild caught flies gut microbiota, to understand if the ability to persist inside the host is due to the microbiota composition that is found in the wild. We show the importance of identifying the indigenous microbial flora present inside the gut, before start studying the microbiota role in the host. This study will pave the way to future research on gut symbionts of insects. |
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| Autores principais: | Pais, Maria Inês da Silva, 1988- |
| Assunto: | Flora intestinal Drosophila melanogaster Sistema imunitário Microorganismos Nutrição Teses de mestrado - 2011 |
| Ano: | 2011 |
| País: | Portugal |
| Tipo de documento: | dissertação de mestrado |
| Tipo de acesso: | acesso aberto |
| Instituição associada: | Universidade de Lisboa |
| Idioma: | inglês |
| Origem: | Repositório da Universidade de Lisboa |
| Resumo: | The digestive tract is constantly in contact with several microorganisms that constitute the gut microbiota. The crucial role this microbial community, both in mammals and in insects, plays in the host physiology is starting to be revealed. The microbiota affects the host nutrition, developmental process and immune system. We can discriminate between two types of microorganisms inside the gut: indigenous microorganisms that colonize the host and transient microorganisms that are acquired from the environment and food. Insects that are found in the nature and reared under laboratory conditions may present differences in the gut microbiota composition. This has also been reported in Drosophila melanogaster, where it is still not clear whether the flora found in the digestive tract establishes a symbiotic relationship with the host or if it is continuously loaded with the ingested food. Here, we attempt to characterize the microbial community and its stability inside the gut of Drosophila melanogaster, both reared under laboratory conditions and collected from nature. We observe more diversity in wild caught flies, compared with laboratory flies. We show that the microbiota of laboratory-reared flies’ guts is not stable and almost disappears when flies are fed with sterile food. Moreover, we show that these bacteria grow on the flies’ food. In contrast, wild caught flies microbiota is able to persist inside the gut, even when flies were fed with sterile food. Conditions were established to rear axenic flies in order to perform future infections with wild caught flies gut microbiota, to understand if the ability to persist inside the host is due to the microbiota composition that is found in the wild. We show the importance of identifying the indigenous microbial flora present inside the gut, before start studying the microbiota role in the host. This study will pave the way to future research on gut symbionts of insects. |
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