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Commensal Bacteria Aid Mate-selection in the Fruit Fly, Bactrocera dorsalis

  • Host Microbe Interactions
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Abstract

Commensal bacteria influence many aspects of an organism’s behaviour. However, studies on the influence of commensal bacteria in insect mate-selection are scarce. Here, we present empirical evidence that commensal bacteria mediate mate-selection in the Oriental fruit fly, Bactrocera dorsalis. Male flies were attracted to female flies, but this attraction was abolished when female flies were fed with antibiotics, suggesting the role of the fly’s microbiota in mediating mate-selection. We show that male flies were attracted to and ejaculated more sperm into females harbouring the microbiota. Using culturing and 16S rDNA sequencing, we isolated and identified different commensal bacteria, with Klebsiella oxytoca being the most abundant bacterial species. This preliminary study will enhance our understanding of the influence of commensal bacteria on mate-selection behaviour of B. dorsalis and may find use in devising control operations against this devastating pest.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Mr. Sagar J and Miss Lakshmi HS for their help in conducting olfactometer bioassays. We thank Dr. Toby Bruce of Rothamsted for proofreading the manuscript. This work was supported by grants from the Indian Council for Agricultural Research’s [ICAR] granted to KJPD and VK through the National Fellow Project and AA through NICRA Project. A part of this study is the doctoral work of AA. The authors also thank the Applied Zoologists Research Association for conferring the authors with the “Edita David Memorial Award” for this work.

Author contribution

VK and AA designed the study, VK and AA conducted bioassays and other experiments, VK wrote the first draft of the manuscript and KJPD contributed to the final version of the manuscript. KJPD, AA and VK contributed equally to the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Fellow Lab, Division of Entomology and Nematology, Indian Institute of Horticultural Research, Hesserghatta Lake Post, Bangalore, 560 089, India

    Kamala Jayanthi Pagadala Damodaram, Arthikirubha Ayyasamy & Vivek Kempraj

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  1. Kamala Jayanthi Pagadala Damodaram
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  2. Arthikirubha Ayyasamy
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  3. Vivek Kempraj
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Correspondence to Vivek Kempraj.

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Fig. S1

Schematic representation of Bacterial choice assay. Individual bacteria grown (stationary phase) in Luria broth (Treatment) and Luria broth alone (control) were pipetted (20 μL) onto filter paper discs. These discs were placed into plastic containers with an entry hole of 20 mm diameter on top and presented to virgin males or female flies (15 days old, 30 flies) in separate netted cages (30 × 30 × 30 cm) for a period of 15 min. The number of flies that were inside the treatment container (responders) and control or on the cage walls (non-responders) was counted. Three replicates for each bacterial isolate were conducted. (GIF 14 kb)

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Table S1

Bacterial communities in virgin female B. dorsalis and attraction of symbiotic bacteria to virgin male and female flies. (XLSX 55 kb)

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Damodaram, K.J.P., Ayyasamy, A. & Kempraj, V. Commensal Bacteria Aid Mate-selection in the Fruit Fly, Bactrocera dorsalis . Microb Ecol 72, 725–729 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00248-016-0819-4

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