Abstract
Many microbes induce striking behavioral changes in their animal hosts, but how they achieve this is poorly understood, especially at the molecular level. Mechanistic understanding has been largely constrained by the lack of an experimental system amenable to molecular manipulation. We recently discovered a strain of the behavior-manipulating fungal pathogen Entomophthora muscae infecting wild Drosophila, and established methods to infect D. melanogaster in the lab. Lab-infected flies manifest the moribund behaviors characteristic of E. muscae infection: hours before death, they climb upward, extend their proboscides, affixing in place, then raise their wings, clearing a path for infectious spores to launch from their abdomens. We found that E. muscae invades the nervous system, suggesting a direct means by which the fungus could induce behavioral changes. Given the vast molecular toolkit available for D. melanogaster, we believe this new system will enable rapid progress in understanding how E. muscae manipulates host behavior.
Highlights
Among the most extraordinary products of evolution are microorganisms that can manipulate animal behavior to their advantage
In late July 2015, we noticed that several flies had died at this site with raised wings at the bottom of the fendel and, upon closer inspection, observed remnants of fungal growth and sporulation on these dead flies (Fig S1A). We suspected that these animals had been killed by the fungal pathogen Entomophthora muscae, though there have been only a few reports of E. muscae infection in wild Drosophila [21,28,29]
PCR genotyping of the host at the cytochrome oxidase II (COII) locus [33] demonstrated that susceptible host species included D. melanogaster, D. immigrans, D. simulans and D. hydei, which are all commonly observed in Berkeley, CA
Summary
Among the most extraordinary products of evolution are microorganisms that can manipulate animal behavior to their advantage. Some of the best characterized examples of this phenomenon are found within the entomopathogenic fungi, fungal species that parasitize insect hosts. The copyright holder for this preprint It is made available under insect behavior has evolved independently multiple times within the fungal kingdom and the hosts of these fungi span many insect orders [1]. While some behaviorally-manipulating entomopathogenic fungi have been known to science since the mid nineteenth century, others are only being discovered and described [2,3,4,5,6,7]. Despite substantial progress made in understanding the ecology and phylogeny of these organisms, the molecular mechanisms by which entomopathogenic fungi hijack the animal nervous system have remained elusive
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
