Yeast quality in juvenile diet affects Drosophila melanogaster adult life traits

Abstract

Diet quality is critical for animal development and survival. Fungi can provide nutrients that are essential to organisms that are unable to synthetize them, such as ergosterol in Drosophila melanogaster. Drosophila studies examining the influence of yeast quality in the diet have generally either provided the diet over the whole life span (larva to adult) or during the adult stage and have rarely focussed on the juvenile diet. Here, we tested the effect of yeast quality in the larval diet on pre-adult development and adult weight, survival, reproduction and food preference. The yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae was added in three forms in three treatments—live, heated or dried—to food used as the juvenile diet or was not added (empty treatment). Adults resulting from the larvae raised on these four juvenile diets were all maintained on a similar standard laboratory food diet. Our data indicate that yeast quality in the juvenile diet affects larva-to-pupa—but not pupa-to-adult—development. Importantly, adult survival, food preference, mating behaviour and cuticular pheromones strongly varied with the juvenile diet. Therefore, the variation of yeast quality in the pre-adult Drosophila diet affects key adult life traits involved in food search, reproduction and survival.

Life-History Evolution and the Genetics of Fitness Components inDrosophila melanogaster

“…These insights were aided by the advent of the "nutritional geometry" framework, providing a quantitative method for examining multidimensional dietary responses (Lee et al 2008;Simpson and Raubenheimer 2012;Flatt 2014. The role of yeast is also underscored by observations showing that the quality and species of dietary yeast fungi has profound effects on fly life history (Begon 1982;Bass et al 2007;Anagnostou et al 2010;Grangeteau et al 2018). In contrast, sugar has overall rather little effect on life span but increasing amounts reduce fecundity (Bass et al 2007;Min et al 2007).…”

Extended Flight Bouts Require Disinhibition from GABAergic Mushroom Body Neurons

“…This arm is connected via the dividing arms of the olfactometer to an empty glass vial, each one containing a small filter paper (ø = 11mm) impregnated with the tested substance. In the case of plain food, filter papers were incubated overnight at 25 C in fresh food vials [61]. For the other substances (acetic acid, ethyl acetate, pure water), small filter papers were added with 50 mL just before the test.…”

The partitioning of symbionts effects on host resource acquisition and developmental plasticity

“…392 But different yeasts species produce different proteins, lipids (sterols, fatty acids) and 393 micronutrients (amino acids, vitamins, mineral salts) due to their different metabolisms (Flores 394 et al 2000;Fanson and Taylor 2012). Yeast quality hence affects fly traits as demonstrated in 395 D. melanogaster (e.g., Grangeteau et al 2018). The fact that yeast strains had similar effect on 396 resource acquisition in all fly species was however unexpected.…”