Sex basis of immunity to gram negative pathogen in D.melanogaster. Drosophila melanogaster

Sex differences are known for many traits including immunity. In Drosophila melanogaster, there is only piecemeal work on genetic markers underlying sex-specific effects on immunity. In this study, I used an outbred and lab-adapted population of Drosophila melanogaster that harbours substantial genetic variation, along with a gram-negative generalist insect pathogen, Pseudomonas entomophila. I infected virgin males and females separately, in eight independent batches with each batch consisting of a 1000 individuals of each sex. I compared baseline allele frequencies of each sex with those of survivors post-infection. Using this host-pathogen system, I identify genetic variants associated with immunity in general and variants contributing to immunity in a sex-specific and sexually-antagonistic way. This allows us to estimate how much of the genome is associated with pathogen resistance and the extent of sexually antagonistic effects on immunity, an important trait determining fitness.