Speaker
Description
Wounding occurs in all animals, including even tiny, often overlooked insects such as Drosophila melanogaster. Wounds can have diverse impacts on the animal’s fitness and ecology, such as the potential introduction of microbial symbionts which may act as pathogens, commensals or mutualists. Lab experiments demonstrated that the microbiome of Drosophila melanogaster influences their fitness and behaviour, while Drosophila itself possesses genes supporting the acquisition of beneficial microbes through immune response suppression. The microbiome of Drosophila flies under natural conditions was shown to be linked rather to its diet and the microbial community of its surrounding, rather than being associated with taxonomy. Despite the frequency of wounding of Drosophila melanogaster in the wild (approximately 31 %), the impact which microbes have on their hosts and the extensive research on insect-bacterial symbioses using Drosophila melanogaster as a model organism in the lab, it remains unclear how wounding contributes to the microbiome composition of these flies in the wild and how the native microbiome of insects responds to and is altered by introduced bacteria. Lastly, it is unknown if wounding leads to the introduction of mostly pathogenic, mutualistic or beneficial symbionts.
Using over 1,000 Drosophila melanogaster specimen which have been meticulously scored on wounding status and type, we conducted bacterial 16S metabarcoding through affordable in-house oxford nanopore sequencing to identify differences in diversity and composition of those microbial communities with regards to their wounding status and sex and aim to taxonomically and ecologically characterize the microorganisms which are likely to be introduced through wounds. Furthermore, we tested whether COI barcoding was sufficient to detect encapsulated parasitoids in the flies bodies.
| Status Group | Doctoral Researcher |
|---|---|
| Poster Presentation Option | Yes, I’m willing to present as a poster. |
