Investigation of effect of probiotic use on organism behaviours in Drosophila melanogaster

Abstract

Microbiota; Microbiome refers to the genes carried by microorganisms living commensally with humans. Recent studies have shown that the gut microbiota plays an important role in shaping the health and fitness of animals, including humans. Probiotics, known as live microorganisms that, when taken in sufficient quantities, are beneficial to the health of the organism they inhabit, have been used traditionally by people for centuries in different ways. In this study, it was aimed to investigate the effect of modified gut microbiota of Drosophila melanogaster individuals fed on probiotic supplemented media and standard media on mate selection, which is one of the behavioral characteristics. For this purpose, probiotic food containing 11 different bacterial species was added to the medium of D. melanogaster for 6 generations to reshape the fly microbiota. Flies grown on standard Drosophila medium and flies fed probiotic food were placed on the cell plates as 1 male and 1 female mixed. The mate choices of individuals carrying different markers were tracked and recorded. Obtained results were evaluated statistically. As a result, it was observed that nutrition, and therefore microbiota, was effective in the selection of mates of flies mixed in cell plates. In particular, it was determined that individuals fed with probiotics chose the opposite sex fed with probiotics in the selection of mates for mating. It has been concluded that the effects of microbiota, the importance of which has been better understood in recent years, on living things should be clarified by different studies.