Yeast quality in juvenile diet affects Drosophila melanogaster adult life traits

• Published in: Scientific reports Vol. 8; no. 1; pp. 13070 - 9
• Main Authors: Grangeteau, Cédric, Yahou, Fairouz, Everaerts, Claude, Dupont, Sébastien, Farine, Jean-Pierre, Beney, Laurent, Ferveur, Jean-François
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 30-08-2018; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 631/326/193/2544; 631/601/18; 64/24; 82/16; Biochemistry, Molecular Biology; Diet; Drosophila; Drosophila melanogaster; Ergosterol; Food; Food and Nutrition; Food preferences; Fungi; Humanities and Social Sciences; Insects; Larvae; Life Sciences; Life span; Mating behavior; multidisciplinary; Nutrients; Pheromones; Quality; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Survival; Yeast; Yeasts; Drosophila melanogaster
• ISSN: 2045-2322; 2045-2322
• DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-31561-9

Diet quality is critical for animal development and survival. Fungi can provide nutrients that are essential to organisms that are unable to synthetize them, such as ergosterol in
Drosophila melanogaster
. Drosophila studies examining the influence of yeast quality in the diet have generally either provided the diet over the whole life span (larva to adult) or during the adult stage and have rarely focussed on the juvenile diet. Here, we tested the effect of yeast quality in the larval diet on pre-adult development and adult weight, survival, reproduction and food preference. The yeast
Saccharomyces cerevisiae
was added in three forms in three treatments—live, heated or dried—to food used as the juvenile diet or was not added (empty treatment). Adults resulting from the larvae raised on these four juvenile diets were all maintained on a similar standard laboratory food diet. Our data indicate that yeast quality in the juvenile diet affects larva-to-pupa—but not pupa-to-adult—development. Importantly, adult survival, food preference, mating behaviour and cuticular pheromones strongly varied with the juvenile diet. Therefore, the variation of yeast quality in the pre-adult Drosophila diet affects key adult life traits involved in food search, reproduction and survival.