Commensal Gut Bacteria Buffer the Impact of Host Genetic Variants on Drosophila Developmental Traits under Nutritional Stress
Dali Ma,
Maroun Bou-Sleiman,
Pauline Joncour,
Claire-Emmanuelle Indelicato,
Michael Frochaux,
Virginie Braman,
Maria Litovchenko,
Gilles Storelli,
Bart Deplancke,
François Leulier
Affiliations
Dali Ma
Institut de Génomique Fonctionnelle de Lyon (IGFL), Université de Lyon, Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, Unité Mixte de Recherche 5242, 69364 Cedex 07, Lyon, France
Maroun Bou-Sleiman
Laboratory of Systems Biology and Genetics, Institute of Bioengineering and Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, School of Life Sciences Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL), 1015, Lausanne, Switzerland
Pauline Joncour
Institut de Génomique Fonctionnelle de Lyon (IGFL), Université de Lyon, Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, Unité Mixte de Recherche 5242, 69364 Cedex 07, Lyon, France
Claire-Emmanuelle Indelicato
Institut de Génomique Fonctionnelle de Lyon (IGFL), Université de Lyon, Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, Unité Mixte de Recherche 5242, 69364 Cedex 07, Lyon, France
Michael Frochaux
Laboratory of Systems Biology and Genetics, Institute of Bioengineering and Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, School of Life Sciences Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL), 1015, Lausanne, Switzerland
Virginie Braman
Laboratory of Systems Biology and Genetics, Institute of Bioengineering and Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, School of Life Sciences Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL), 1015, Lausanne, Switzerland
Maria Litovchenko
Laboratory of Systems Biology and Genetics, Institute of Bioengineering and Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, School of Life Sciences Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL), 1015, Lausanne, Switzerland
Gilles Storelli
Institut de Génomique Fonctionnelle de Lyon (IGFL), Université de Lyon, Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, Unité Mixte de Recherche 5242, 69364 Cedex 07, Lyon, France
Bart Deplancke
Laboratory of Systems Biology and Genetics, Institute of Bioengineering and Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, School of Life Sciences Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL), 1015, Lausanne, Switzerland; Corresponding author
François Leulier
Institut de Génomique Fonctionnelle de Lyon (IGFL), Université de Lyon, Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, Unité Mixte de Recherche 5242, 69364 Cedex 07, Lyon, France; Corresponding author
Summary: Eukaryotic genomes encode several buffering mechanisms that robustly maintain invariant phenotypic outcome despite fluctuating environmental conditions. Here we show that the Drosophila gut-associated commensals, represented by a single facultative symbiont, Lactobacillus plantarum (LpWJL), constitutes a so far unexpected buffer that masks the contribution of the host's cryptic genetic variation (CGV) to developmental traits while the host is under nutritional stress. During chronic under-nutrition, LpWJL consistently reduces variation in different host phenotypic traits and ensures robust organ patterning during development; LpWJL also decreases genotype-dependent expression variation, particularly for development-associated genes. We further provide evidence that LpWJL buffers via reactive oxygen species (ROS) signaling whose inhibition impairs microbiota-mediated phenotypic robustness. We thus identified a hitherto unappreciated contribution of the gut facultative symbionts to host fitness that, beyond supporting growth rates and maturation timing, confers developmental robustness and phenotypic homogeneity in times of nutritional stress. : Biological Sciences; Microbiology; Oral Microbiology Subject Areas: Biological Sciences, Microbiology, Oral Microbiology