Hanseniaspora uvarum Attracts Drosophila suzukii (Diptera: Drosophilidae) With High Specificity.

Since the early phase of the intercontinental dispersal of Drosophila suzukii (Matsumura) (Diptera: Drosophilidae), fermentation baits have been used for monitoring. Self-made lures and commercial products are often based on wine and vinegar. From an ecological perspective, the formulation of these baits is expected to target especially vinegar flies associated with overripe fruit, such as Drosophila melanogaster (Meigen) (Diptera: Drosophilidae). Hanseniaspora uvarum (Niehaus) (Ascomycota: Saccharomyceta) is a yeast closely associated with D. suzukii and fruit, and furthermore attractive to the flies. Based on this relation, H. uvarum might represent a suitable substrate for the development of lures that are more specific than vinegar and wine. In the field, we therefore, compared H. uvarum to a commercial bait that was based on vinegar and wine with respect to the number of trapped D. suzukii relative to other drosophilids and arthropods. Trap captures were higher with the commercial bait but specificity for D. suzukii was greater with H. uvarum. Moreover, H. uvarum headspace extracts, as well as a synthetic blend of H. uvarum volatiles, were assayed for attraction of D suzukii in a wind tunnel and in the field. Headspace extracts and the synthetic blend induced strong upwind flight in the wind tunnel and confirmed attraction to H. uvarum volatiles. Furthermore, baited with H. uvarum headspace extract and a drowning solution of aqueous acetic acid and ethanol, 74% of field captured arthropods were D. suzukii. Our findings suggest that synthetic yeast headspace formulations might advance the development of more selective monitoring traps with reduced by-catch.

Digest: Female-limited X chromosome evolution in Drosophila melanogaster.

Sexual dimorphism can cause sexual antagonism of phenotypic traits. Lund-Hansen and colleagues (2020) investigated female-limited X chromosome evolution in Drosophila melanogaster using forced matrilineal inheritance. Body size and developmental time evolved toward their female optima, but reproductive fitness and locomotion remained unchanged. These findings imply that some sexually antagonized loci may be distributed across the genome and that some phenotypes may have already reached their female optima in nature.

How gut microbiome interactions affect nutritional traits of Drosophila melanogaster.

Most research on the impact of the gut microbiome on animal nutrition is designed to identify the effects of single microbial taxa and single metabolites of microbial origin, without considering the potentially complex network of interactions among co-occurring microorganisms. Here, we investigated how different microbial associations and their fermentation products affect host nutrition, using Drosophila melanogaster colonized with three gut microorganisms (the bacteria Acetobacter fabarum and Lactobacillus brevis, and the yeast Hanseniaspora uvarum) in all seven possible combinations. Some microbial effects on host traits could be attributed to single taxa (e.g. yeast-mediated reduction of insect development time), while other effects were sex specific and driven by among-microbe interactions (e.g. male lipid content determined by interactions between the yeast and both bacteria). Parallel analysis of nutritional indices of microbe-free flies administered different microbial fermentation products (acetic acid, acetoin, ethanol and lactic acid) revealed a single consistent effect: that the lipid content of both male and female flies is reduced by acetic acid. This effect was recapitulated in male flies colonized with both yeast and A. fabarum, but not for any microbial treatment in females or males with other microbial complements. These data suggest that the effect of microbial fermentation products on host nutritional status is strongly context dependent, with respect to both the combination of associated microorganisms and host sex. Taken together, our findings demonstrate that among-microbe interactions can play a critically important role in determining the physiological outcome of host-microbiome interactions in Drosophila and, likely, in other animal hosts.

Live yeast in juvenile diet induces species-specific effects on Drosophila adult behaviour and fitness.

The presence and the amount of specific yeasts in the diet of saprophagous insects such as Drosophila can affect their development and fitness. However, the impact of different yeast species in the juvenile diet has rarely been investigated. Here, we measured the behavioural and fitness effects of three live yeasts (Saccharomyces cerevisiae = SC; Hanseniaspora uvarum = HU; Metschnikowia pulcherrima = MP) added to the diet of Drosophila melanogaster larvae. Beside these live yeast species naturally found in natural Drosophila populations or in their food sources, we tested the inactivated "drySC" yeast widely used in Drosophila research laboratories. All flies were transferred to drySC medium immediately after adult emergence, and several life traits and behaviours were measured. These four yeast diets had different effects on pre-imaginal development: HU-rich diet tended to shorten the "egg-to-pupa" period of development while MP-rich diet induced higher larval lethality compared to other diets. Pre- and postzygotic reproduction-related characters (copulatory ability, fecundity, cuticular pheromones) varied according to juvenile diet and sex. Juvenile diet also changed adult food choice preference and longevity. These results indicate that specific yeast species present in natural food sources and ingested by larvae can affect their adult characters crucial for fitness.

Life history tradeoffs in humans: increased life expectancy with sperm count reduction.

Although not without controversy, as a general trend, the human sperm count is declining world-wide. One major reason for such a decline is an increase in the human life-span.  According to the life history tradeoff theory, fecundity is inversely related to the lifespan; the longer the lifespan, the lower the fecundity. This is essential to the maintainance of diversity and balance of different species. Such a corrleation validated by experimental data that show that the extension of life in Caenorhabditis elegans, Drosophila and Rodents is  associated with reduction in fecundity. The demographic data from a public data source, shows that the total fertility rate is positively correlated with the infant death rate, it is inversely correlated with the life expectancy. We postulate that the fall in spermatogenesis might be regulated by the neuroendocrine system that underlie human longevity.

Methylation of the phosphatase-transcription activator EYA1 by protein arginine methyltransferase 1: mechanistic, functional, and structural studies.

The eyes absent (EYA) family proteins are conserved transcriptional coactivators with intrinsic protein phosphatase activity. They play an essential role in the development of various organs in metazoans. These functions are associated with a unique combination of phosphatase and transactivation activities. However, it remains poorly understood how these activities and the consequent biologic functions of EYA are regulated. Here, we demonstrate that 2 conserved arginine residues, R304 and R306, of EYA1 are essential for its in vitro phosphatase activity and in vivo function during Drosophila eye development. EYA1 physically interacts with protein arginine methyltransferase 1, which methylates EYA1 at these residues both in vitro and in cultured mammalian and insect cells. Moreover, we show that wild-type, but not methylation-defective, EYA1 associates with γ-H2A.X in response to ionizing radiation. Taken together, our results identify the conserved arginine residues of EYA1 that play an important role for its activity, thus implicating arginine methylation as a novel regulatory mechanism of EYA function.-Li, X., Eberhardt, A., Hansen, J. N., Bohmann, D., Li, H., Schor, N. F. Methylation of the phosphatase-transcription activator EYA1 by protein arginine methyltransferase 1: mechanistic, functional, and structural studies.

The ubiquitin ligase parkin mediates resistance to intracellular pathogens.

Ubiquitin-mediated targeting of intracellular bacteria to the autophagy pathway is a key innate defence mechanism against invading microbes, including the important human pathogen Mycobacterium tuberculosis. However, the ubiquitin ligases responsible for catalysing ubiquitin chains that surround intracellular bacteria are poorly understood. The parkin protein is a ubiquitin ligase with a well-established role in mitophagy, and mutations in the parkin gene (PARK2) lead to increased susceptibility to Parkinson's disease. Surprisingly, genetic polymorphisms in the PARK2 regulatory region are also associated with increased susceptibility to intracellular bacterial pathogens in humans, including Mycobacterium leprae and Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi, but the function of parkin in immunity has remained unexplored. Here we show that parkin has a role in ubiquitin-mediated autophagy of M. tuberculosis. Both parkin-deficient mice and flies are sensitive to various intracellular bacterial infections, indicating parkin has a conserved role in metazoan innate defence. Moreover, our work reveals an unexpected functional link between mitophagy and infectious disease.

Antibody to a 63 kilodalton insect protein in ankylosing spondylitis.

Ankylosing spondylitis (AS) is associated with antibodies to a heat shock puff on drosophila chromosomes. This observation was investigated by immunoblotting using extracts of the Schneider insect cell line and HeLa cells, before and after heat shock. An insect protein of 63 kilodaltons (but no equivalent human protein) was recognised by 21 (46%) of 46 serum samples from patients with AS, one of two patients with Reiter's syndrome, four (7%) of 60 patients with systemic lupus erythematosus, and two (4%) of 50 control subjects, but not by serum samples from patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Previous heat shock did not appear to affect the strength of reaction, but ML-30, a monoclonal antibody to the mycobacterial 65 kilodalton heat shock protein (hsp65), also recognised an insect protein of 63 kilodaltons by immunoblotting. Antibodies to recombinant mycobacterial hsp65 were measured by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) in serum samples from patients with AS and RA. IgA binding to hsp65 was increased in 41% of AS and 19% of RA serum samples, but there was no correlation with detection of antibody to the insect 63 kilodalton protein.

Analysis of the 5' end of the Drosophila muscle myosin heavy chain gene. Alternatively spliced transcripts initiate at a single site and intron locations are conserved compared to myosin genes of other organisms.

We have localized the transcription start site of the Drosophila melanogaster muscle myosin heavy chain (MHC) gene and find that all forms of the alternatively spliced MHC mRNA initiate at the same location. Therefore the alternative inclusion/exclusion of the 3' penultimate exon in transcripts from this gene (Bernstein, S.I., Hansen, C.J., Becker, K.D., Wassenberg, D.R., II, Roche, E.S., Donady, J.J., and Emerson, C. P., Jr. (1986) Mol. Cell. Biol. 6, 2511-2519; Rozek, C.E., and Davidson, N. (1986) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 83, 2128-2134) does not result from the use of different 5' transcription initiation sites. This gene is the first invertebrate MHC gene shown to have TATA and CAAT box consensus sequences and a noncoding 5' exon, properties that are shared with some vertebrate and invertebrate contractile protein genes. The intron that splits the 5' noncoding region of the Drosophila MHC gene contains no major conserved elements relative to other Drosophila contractile protein genes. The introns within the coding region near the 5' end of the Drosophila MHC gene are located at the same sites as nematode and vertebrate MHC gene introns, indicating that these MHC genes are derived from a common ancestral sequence. The putative ATP binding domain encoded in the fourth exon of the Drosophila MHC gene is highly conserved relative to vertebrate, invertebrate, and non-muscle MHC genes suggesting that each of these myosins bind ATP by the same mechanism. Two divergent copies of the third exon are present within the 5' region of the Drosophila MHC gene, suggesting that alternative splicing produces MHC isoforms with different globular head regions.