Presenter: Shayna Scott, College of Life Sciences, Microbiology
Authors: Shayna N Scott, John Chaston
Faculty Advisor: John Chaston, College of Life Sciences, Genetics
Institution: Brigham Young University
The genotype of an organism can act in collaboration with the microorganisms that are present within a host organism to determine the organism’s locally adapted phenotypes. These microorganisms are referred to as the microbiota. The gut microbiota plays a significant role in the development of the host and its nutritional makeup such as in tradeoffs between fecundity and lifespan . Studies have shown that host genotype can significantly alter the microbiota composition of wild flies (Dobson, 2015; Chaston, 2016). However, the way that host genotype selects the microbiota is not fully understood. The goal of this project is to understand how Drosophila melanogaster feeding preferences can help determine which microorganisms are associated with the flies. This will be done by setting up a choice versus no choice assay where the effects on microbiota variation will be measured when flies can or cannot choose between microbes in diet. This work fits into a broader set of questions by contributing to understanding the source of variation in microbiota composition.