Presenter: Reese Hunsaker
Authors: Reese Hunsaker
Faculty Advisor: John Chaston
Institution: Brigham Young University
Bacteria colonize the guts of higher order organisms and live in a symbiotic relationship called the microbiome. The microbiome ofD. melanogaster has been shown to strongly influence host life history traits. The composition of fruit fly gut bacteria can determine fecundity, life span, and starvation resistance. D. melanogasterin different climates have been shown to have different microbiome compositions and therefore different life history traits. The goal of this research is to identify what environmental factors determine which bacterial species are selected for in the guts of D. melanogaster. We will use gnotobiotic flies inoculated with six bacterial species and then place them in differing conditions. We will then track the compositions of these flies’ microbiomes after they have spent two days in varying conditions. Humidity, temperature, and photoperiod will be changed between replicates to determine which conditions influence the microbiome in D. melanogaster.