A Study of the Diets and Nutritional Preferences of Tropical Species of Drosophila

Cunha, A. Brito da; Shehata, Ahmed; Oliveira, Wendel de Souza

doi:10.2307/1932131

Cited by 50 publications

(39 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…As it rots, fruit is colonized by a succession of yeast species and other microbiota that decomposes it until finally the fruit tissue is exhausted (Morais et al, 1995). Due to their preference for particular yeast species (da Cunha et al, 1951;da Cunha et al, 1957;Morais et al, 1995), different species of Drosophilids are known to colonize fruit at different phases of the ripening/rotting process (Lachaise et al, 1982;Nunney, 1990). Some species, such as those from the subgenus Zaprionus, colonize fruit while it is ripe, while others, like those from the Drosophila fima subgroup, colonize fruit at advanced stages of decay (Lachaise et al, 1982).…”

Section: Feeding Behavior and The Regulation Of Macronutrient Intakementioning

confidence: 99%

Drosophila melanogaster larvae make nutritional choices that minimize developmental time

Rodrigues

Martins

Balance

et al. 2015

Journal of Insect Physiology

122

136

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Organisms from slime moulds to humans carefully regulate their macronutrient intake to optimize a wide range of life history characters including survival, stress resistance, and reproductive success. However, life history characters often differ in their response to nutrition, forcing organisms to make foraging decisions while balancing the trade-offs between these effects. To date, we have a limited understanding of how the nutritional environment shapes the relationship between life history characters and foraging decisions. To gain insight into the problem, we used a geometric framework for nutrition to assess how the protein and carbohydrate content of the larval diet affected key life history traits in the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster. In no-choice assays, survival from egg to pupae, female and male body size, and ovariole number - a proxy for female fecundity - were maximized at the highest protein to carbohydrate (P:C) ratio (1.5:1). In contrast, development time was minimized at intermediate P:C ratios, around 1:2. Next, we subjected larvae to two-choice tests to determine how they regulated their protein and carbohydrate intake in relation to these life history traits. Our results show that larvae targeted their consumption to P:C ratios that minimized development time. Finally, we examined whether adult females also chose to lay their eggs in the P:C ratios that minimized developmental time. Using a three-choice assay, we found that adult females preferentially laid their eggs in food P:C ratios that were suboptimal for all larval life history traits. Our results demonstrate that D. melanogaster larvae make foraging decisions that trade-off developmental time with body size, ovariole number, and survival. In addition, adult females make oviposition decisions that do not appear to benefit the larvae. We propose that these decisions may reflect the living nature of the larval nutritional environment in rotting fruit. These studies illustrate the interaction between the nutritional environment, life history traits, and foraging choices in D. melanogaster, and lend insight into the ecology of their foraging decisions.

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Section: Feeding Behavior and The Regulation Of Macronutrient Intakementioning

confidence: 99%

Drosophila melanogaster larvae make nutritional choices that minimize developmental time

Rodrigues

Martins

Balance

et al. 2015

Journal of Insect Physiology

122

136

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Similar results for other temperate Drosophila species were obtained in England by Begon (1973). On the other hand, da Cunha et al (1957) showed that adults of tropical Drosophila species differed in the species of yeasts utilized and were able to discriminate among the yeasts. These results were interpreted as indicating the evolution of strategies to minimize interspecific competition where possible breeding and feeding substrates are both abundant and diverse.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Attraction of Drosophila Buzzatii and D. Aldrichi to Species of Yeasts Isolated From their Natural Environment. I. Laboratory Experiments

Barker¹,

Parker²,

Toll³

et al. 1981

Aust. Jnl. Of Bio. Sci.

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The attractiveness of yeast species isolated from rotting c1adodes of Opuntia inermis for adults of the cactophilic species D. buzzatii and D. aldrichi was determined by giving the flies a multiple choice of yeast species and counting the numbers on each yeast at regular intervals throughout 1 day in each of five experiments. Consistent effects implying behavioural differences between sexes, between immature and mature flies, and between the two Drosophila species were found. For immature flies of each species, there were significant differences in the numbers of flies attracted to each yeast, but preferences were more marked for females than for males. Although there were no significant differences between the two Drosophila species in their yeast preferences, comparison of results for 1-3-day-old flies and mature mated females suggested possible differentiation between the species in yeast utilization by mature females, and possible larval-adult feeding niche separation. Behavioural responses contributing to observed effects, particularly differences between sexes, and between young and mature flies, are clearly complex and their basis remains to be elucidated.

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“…Different species of Drosophila, despite living sympatrically and seemingly utilizing the same food sources, are often associated with different yeast species (16,29,56). Other studies, however, have found the effect of host species to be overshadowed by geography (39).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Yeast Communities of Diverse Drosophila Species: Comparison of Two Symbiont Groups in the Same Hosts

Chandler

Eisen

Kopp

2012

Appl Environ Microbiol

160

163

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The combination of ecological diversity with genetic and experimental tractability makes Drosophila a powerful model for the study of animal-associated microbial communities. Despite the known importance of yeasts in Drosophila physiology, behavior, and fitness, most recent work has focused on Drosophila-bacterial interactions. In order to get a more complete understanding of the Drosophila microbiome, we characterized the yeast communities associated with different Drosophila species collected around the world. We focused on the phylum Ascomycota because it constitutes the vast majority of the Drosophila-associated yeasts. Our sampling strategy allowed us to compare the distribution and structure of the yeast and bacterial communities in the same host populations. We show that yeast communities are dominated by a small number of abundant taxa, that the same yeast lineages are associated with different host species and populations, and that host diet has a greater effect than host species on yeast community composition. These patterns closely parallel those observed in Drosophila bacterial communities. However, we do not detect a significant correlation between the yeast and bacterial communities of the same host populations. Comparative analysis of different symbiont groups provides a more comprehensive picture of host-microbe interactions. Future work on the role of symbiont communities in animal physiology, ecological adaptation, and evolution would benefit from a similarly holistic approach.

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A Study of the Diets and Nutritional Preferences of Tropical Species of Drosophila

Cited by 50 publications

References 9 publications

Drosophila melanogaster larvae make nutritional choices that minimize developmental time

Drosophila melanogaster larvae make nutritional choices that minimize developmental time

Attraction of Drosophila Buzzatii and D. Aldrichi to Species of Yeasts Isolated From their Natural Environment. I. Laboratory Experiments

Yeast Communities of Diverse Drosophila Species: Comparison of Two Symbiont Groups in the Same Hosts

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