Common structuring principles of the Drosophila melanogaster microbiome on a continental scale and between host and substrate.

Sven Kuenzel,Fabian Staubach,Yun Wang,Lena Waidele,Alan O Bergland,Martin Kapun

doi:10.1111/1758-2229.12826

Abstract

The relative importance of host control, environmental effects and stochasticity in the assemblage of host-associated microbiomes is being debated. We analysed the microbiome among fly populations that were sampled across Europe by the European Drosophila Population Genomics Consortium (DrosEU). In order to better understand the structuring principles of the natural D. melanogaster microbiome, we combined environmental data on climate and food-substrate with dense genomic data on host populations and microbiome profiling. Food-substrate, temperature, and host population structure correlated with microbiome structure. Microbes, whose abundance was co-structured with host populations, also differed in abundance between flies and their substrate in an independent survey. This finding suggests common, host-related structuring principles of the microbiome on different spatial scales.

Highlights

Environmental factors and stochastic processes play important roles in shaping microbiomes (Spor et al, 2011; van Opstal and Bordenstein, 2015)
We analysed the microbiome among fly populations that were sampled across Europe by the European Drosophila Population Genomics Consortium (DrosEU)
Food-substrate, temperature, and host population structure correlated with microbiome structure

Summary

Introduction

Environmental factors and stochastic processes play important roles in shaping microbiomes (Spor et al, 2011; van Opstal and Bordenstein, 2015). In order to explain variation between microbiomes from the same species, stochastic, ecologically neutral processes have moved into focus. These processes comprise ecological drift, dispersal and colonization history. It appears plausible for diverse species (Sieber et al, 2019), including Drosophila (Adair et al, 2018) that neutral processes dominate microbiome assembly. As in mammals and other organisms, environmental factors, such as the time of collection (Adair et al, 2018; Behrman et al, 2018) or diet (Chandler et al, 2011; Staubach et al, 2013; Erkosar et al, 2018; Wang and Staubach, 2018) have a strong effect on the Drosophila microbiome

Results

Discussion

Conclusion