Robust manipulation of the behavior of Drosophila melanogaster by a fungal pathogen in the laboratory

Abstract
Data availability
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Abstract

Many microbes induce striking behavioral changes in their animal hosts, but how they achieve this is poorly understood, especially at the molecular level. Mechanistic understanding has been largely constrained by the lack of an experimental system amenable to molecular manipulation. We recently discovered a strain of the behavior-manipulating fungal pathogen Entomophthora muscae infecting wild Drosophila, and established methods to infect D. melanogaster in the lab. Lab-infected flies manifest the moribund behaviors characteristic of E. muscae infection: hours before death, they climb upward, extend their proboscides, affixing in place, then raise their wings, clearing a path for infectious spores to launch from their abdomens. We found that E. muscae invades the nervous system, suggesting a direct means by which the fungus could induce behavioral changes. Given the vast molecular toolkit available for D. melanogaster, we believe this new system will enable rapid progress in understanding how E. muscae manipulates host behavior.

Data availability

Transcriptomic data have been deposited in GEO under accession code GSE111046.Genomic data have been deposited in NCBI under accession code PRJNA479887.

The following data sets were generated

1. Elya C
2. Eisen MB
(2018) Transcriptomic response of Drosophila melanogaster whole bodies or dissected brains to Entomophthora muscae 'Berkeley'
Publicly available at the NCBI Gene Expression Omnibus (accession no: GSE111046).

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo/query/acc.cgi?acc=GSE111046
1. Bronski M
2. Elya C
3. Stajich J
4. Eisen MB
(2018) Entomophthora muscae strain:Berkeley Genome sequencing and assembly
Publicly available at the European Nucleotide Archive (accession no: PRJNA479887).

https://www.ebi.ac.uk/ena/data/view/PRJNA479887

Article and author information

Author details

Carolyn Elya

Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, United States

For correspondence
cnelya@gmail.com

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

"This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-9634-0303
Tin Ching Lok

Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, United States

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

"This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0001-6388-5721
Quinn E Spencer

Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, United States

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
Hayley McCausland

Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, United States

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

"This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-3177-2543
Ciera C Martinez

Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, United States

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
Michael B Eisen

Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, United States

For correspondence
mbeisen@berkeley.edu

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

"This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-7528-738X

Funding

Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Michael B Eisen

National Science Foundation

Carolyn Elya
Ciera C Martinez

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.

Copyright

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.