Diversity and associations between Drosophilidae (Diptera) species and Basidiomycetes in a Neotropical forest.

Drosophilidae is one of the most representative families of insects that occurs in fungal fruiting bodies of Basidiomycetes; however, the diversity and community structure of mycophagous Drosophilidae in the Neotropical region is poorly known. The aims of the present study were to describe the diversity of mycophagous Drosophilidae and to investigate its colonization of fungal hosts in a forest of southern Brazil. From 120 fungal samples (patches of mushrooms) of 17 Basidiomycetes genera, flies were recorded emerging from 70 samples and collected in adult stages of 25 fungal samples, for a total of 4897 drosophilids belonging to 31 species and 5 genera. Drosophila Fallén was the most species-rich genus, whereas Hirtodrosophila Duda was the dominant genus. Studies performed in the Holarctic region indicate that mycophagous drosophilid have generalist habits; however, our results showed that most drosophilids use fewer than two fungal hosts, and most species of Hirtodrosophila and Leucophenga were restricted to abundant fungal species, suggesting a specialization for these resources. The most specialized fauna emerged from Auricularia, which was the most frequent fungal genus in our collection, and this result supports the assumption that specialization depends on the availability of fungal resources over time.

Tuning Biocompatibility and Bactericidal Efficacy as a Function of Doping of Gold in ZnO Nanocrystals.

Doping nanoparticles represents a strategy for modulating the energy levels and surface states of nanocrystals (NCs), thereby enhancing their efficiency and mitigating toxicity. Thus, we herein focus on the successful synthesis of pure and gold (Au)-doped zinc oxide (ZnO) nanocrystals (NCs), investigating their physical-chemical properties and evaluating their applicability and toxicity through in vitro and in vivo assessments. The optical, structural, and photocatalytic characteristics of these NCs were scrutinized by using optical absorption (OA), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and methylene blue degradation, respectively. The formation and doping of the NCs were corroborated by the XRD and OA results. While the introduction of Au as a dopant did induce changes in the phase and size of ZnO, a high concentration of Au ions in ZnO led to a reduction in their photocatalytic activity. This demonstrated a restricted antibacterial efficacy against Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Staphylococcus aureus. Remarkably, Au-doped counterparts exhibited enhanced biocompatibility in comparison to ZnO, as evidenced in both in vitro (murine macrophage cells) and in vivo (Drosophila melanogaster) studies. Furthermore, confocal microscopy images showed a high luminescence of Au-doped ZnO NCs in vivo. Thus, this study underscores the potential of Au doping of ZnO NCs as a promising technique to enhance material properties and increase biocompatibility.

Drosophila americana Diapausing Females Show Features Typical of Young Flies.

Diapause is a period of arrested development which is controlled physiologically, preprogrammed environmentally and characterized by metabolic depression that can occur during any stage of insect development. Nevertheless, in the genus Drosophila, diapause is almost always associated with the cessation of ovarian development and reproductive activity in adult females. In this work, we show that, in D. americana (a temperate species of the virilis group), diapause is a genetically determined delay in ovarian development that is triggered by temperature and/or photoperiod. Moreover, we show that in this species diapause incidence increases with latitude, ranging from 13% in the southernmost to 91% in the northernmost range of the distribution. When exposed to diapause inducing conditions, both diapausing and non-diapausing females show a 10% increase in lifespan, that is further increased by 18.6% in diapausing females, although senescence is far from being negligible.ActinD1 expression levels suggest that diapausing females are biologically much younger than their chronological age, and that the fly as a whole, rather than the ovarian developmental one, which is phenotypically more evident, is delayed by diapause. Therefore, diapause candidate genes that show expression levels that are compatible with flies younger than their chronological age may not necessarily play a role in reproductive diapause and in adaptation to seasonally varying environmental conditions [corrected].