Presenter: Ashton Tanner, College of Life Sciences, Plant and Wildlife Sciences
Authors: Ashton Tanner
Faculty Advisor: John Chaston, College of Life Sciences, Plant and Wildlife Sciences
Institution: Brigham Young University
The gut microbiota is the sum of all the symbiotic microorganisms living in the digestive tract. These microorganisms have the potential to influence the host’s physiology and metabolism (Pandey, 2011.) Drosophila melanogaster flies are an ideal model organism to study the microbiota because they only have 5-20 microbial species as opposed to thousands in humans. Therefore, the flies can readily be associated with defined sets of bacterial strains that represent a complete microbial community. Previous experiments in my mentor’s lab have used such methods to show that variation in colonizing microorganisms can influence fly life-span, disease resistance, and fecundity. One area that’s not as well understood is how variation in microbial colonization occurs. My goal is to test if 3 environmental factors-temperature, photoperiod, and humidity-influence the fly’s microbiome. Because my lab has previous studied flies in eastern USA, I’ll focus on wild fly collections from Main, Pennsylvania, and Florida. If my predictions are correct, then flies reared under these conditions will have differences in microbial composition. If not, it’ll show my factors don’t influence the fly microbiome; and may suggest that genetics or diet have stronger influences. All this work will contribute to my broader understanding of the gut microbiome.