Data from: The effect of gut microbiota elimination in Drosophila melanogaster: a how-to guide for host-microbiota studies

In recent years, there has been a surge in interest in the effects of the
microbiota on the host. Increasingly, we are coming to understand the
importance of the gut microbiota in modulating host physiology, ecology,
behaviour, and evolution. One method utilized to evaluate the effect of
the microbiota is to suppress or eliminate it, and compare the effect on
the host with that of untreated individuals. In this study, we evaluate
some of these commonly used methods in the model organism, Drosophila
melanogaster. We test the efficacy of a low-dose streptomycin diet, egg
dechorionation, and an axenic or sterile diet, in the removal of gut
bacteria within this species in a fully factorial design. We further
determine potential side effects of these methods on host physiology by
performing a series of standard physiological assays. Our results showed
that individuals from all treatments took significantly longer to develop,
and weighed less, compared to normal flies. Males and females that had
undergone egg dechorionation weighed significantly less than streptomycin
reared individuals. Similarly, axenic female flies, but not males, were
much less active when analysed in a locomotion assay. All methods
decreased the egg to adult survival, with egg dechorionation inducing
significantly higher mortality. We conclude that low-dose streptomycin
added to the dietary media is more effective at removing the gut bacteria
than egg dechorionation and has somewhat less detrimental effects to host
physiology. More importantly, this method is the most practical and
reliable for use in behavioural research. Our study raises the important
issue that the efficacy of and impacts on the host of these methods,
requires investigation in a case by case manner, rather than assuming
homogeneity across species and laboratories.