Epithelial homeostasis and the underlying molecular mechanisms in the gut of the insect model Drosophila melanogaster

Abstract

Insects mostly develop on decaying and contaminated organic matter and often serve as vectors of biologically transmitted diseases by transporting microorganisms to the plant and animal hosts. As such, insects are constantly ingesting microorganisms, a small fraction of which reach their epithelial surfaces, mainly their digestive tract, where they can establish relationships ranging from symbiosis to mutualism or even parasitism. Understanding the tight physical, genetic, and biochemical interactions that takes place between intestinal epithelia and either resident or infectious microbes has been a long-lasting objective of the immunologist. Research in this field has recently been re-vitalized with the development of deep sequencing techniques, which allow qualitative and quantitative characterization of gut microbiota. Interestingly, the recent identification of regenerative stem cells in the Drosophila gut together with the initial characterization of Drosophila gut microbiota have opened up new avenues of study aimed at understanding the mechanisms that regulate the dialog between the Drosophila gut epithelium and its microbiota of this insect model. The fact that some of the responses are conserved across species combined with the power of Drosophila genetics could make this organism model a useful tool to further elucidate some aspects of the interaction occurring between the microbiota and the human gut.

The Acetate Switch of an Intestinal Pathogen Disrupts Host Insulin Signaling and Lipid Metabolism

“…The Drosophila intestine responds to infection by elaboration of a chemical barrier comprised of reactive oxygen species (ROS) generated by dual oxidase and antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) produced as a result of activation of the IMD signaling pathway (Royet, 2011). We used dihydro-dichloro-fluorescein di-acetate (DCF-DA), a molecule that fluoresces upon oxidation, to visualize and quantify ROS production in uninfected and infected intestines.…”

Bacterial isolates fromPalomena prasina(Hemiptera: Pentatomidae) include potential microbial control agents

“…Bacteria are the most common microorganisms associated with insects. They can establish relationships ranging from symbiosis to mutualism or even parasitism (Royet, 2011). Determining the bacteria in insect species can allow the development of new approaches to biological control since they can be genetically transformed to express insect-killing toxins or proteins (Li, Medina, Vinson, & Coates, 2005).…”

Intestinal regeneration as an insect resistance mechanism to entomopathogenic bacteria

“…Readers are directed to an in-depth recent review of relevant Drosophila literature [32 • ]; as only main concepts are described in this section. In contrast to the four gut cell types of lepidopteran larvae, a fifth cell type named transient amplifying (TA) cells, appears only during pathogenic episodes in Drosophila .…”