Author(s): Andrew Davidson
Mentor(s): John Chaston
Institution BYU
Drosophila melanogaster has become a model organism for studying the impact of microbiota upon both their host’s genotype and phenotype. The gut microbiota composition of D. melanogaster can be manipulated through the mono-association of bacterial strains to fly populations. Preliminary data, consisting of 83 metabolomes and the 17,873 genes within the genome of D. melanogaster, revealed relative abundances of metabolomes and relative gene activity within the flies. These metabolomes are byproducts of the gut microbiota within the flies. Through the repression of the bacterial genes responsible for the production of metabolomes, we believe our understanding of the gene expression of D. melanogaster will be deepened. In order to further our understanding of how gut microbiota genotype affects the phenotype of D. melanogaster, we will select the five most impactful mutants based upon previously recorded data of metabolite concentration. We will then compare analysis of the DNA, RNA, and metabolomes of the mutant flies with those of wild type, non mutant, flies.