Microbiota-Induced Gene Expression Changes in the Drosophila melanogaster Head

Symbiotic microorganisms can strongly impact the neurobiology and behaviors of their animal hosts, through currently poorly understood molecular mechanisms. We used RNA-seq to identify microbiota-induced gene expression changes in the heads of adult Drosophila. In order to identify genes regulated by commensal bacteria, we compared the head transcriptomes of 5-6 day old adult male Top Banana flies grown: (i) via conventional (CV) rearing practices, associated with their un-manipulated gut microbiota, and (ii) under sterile, germ-free (GF) conditions. Previous gene expression studies have examined microbiota-dependent expression changes in whole flies or in the Drosophila gut. Our work is the first to investigate the consequences of microbiota elimination on the transcriptomic profile of the fly head.