Department of Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2010 Nov 16;107(46):20051-6. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1009906107. Epub 2010 Nov 1.
Development of mating preference is considered to be an early event in speciation. In this study, mating preference was achieved by dividing a population of Drosophila melanogaster and rearing one part on a molasses medium and the other on a starch medium. When the isolated populations were mixed, "molasses flies" preferred to mate with other molasses flies and "starch flies" preferred to mate with other starch flies. The mating preference appeared after only one generation and was maintained for at least 37 generations. Antibiotic treatment abolished mating preference, suggesting that the fly microbiota was responsible for the phenomenon. This was confirmed by infection experiments with microbiota obtained from the fly media (before antibiotic treatment) as well as with a mixed culture of Lactobacillus species and a pure culture of Lactobacillus plantarum isolated from starch flies. Analytical data suggest that symbiotic bacteria can influence mating preference by changing the levels of cuticular hydrocarbon sex pheromones. The results are discussed within the framework of the hologenome theory of evolution.
交配偏好的发展被认为是物种形成的早期事件。在这项研究中，通过将黑腹果蝇的一个种群进行分离，并在糖蜜培养基和淀粉培养基上分别培养一部分来实现交配偏好。当分离的种群混合时，“糖蜜蝇”更喜欢与其他糖蜜蝇交配，而“淀粉蝇”更喜欢与其他淀粉蝇交配。这种交配偏好仅在一代后就出现了，并至少维持了 37 代。抗生素处理消除了交配偏好，表明果蝇微生物群是造成这种现象的原因。这一点通过用来自蝇媒（抗生素处理前）的微生物群以及从淀粉蝇中分离出的混合培养的乳酸菌和纯培养的植物乳杆菌进行感染实验得到了证实。分析数据表明，共生细菌可以通过改变表皮碳氢化合物性信息素的水平来影响交配偏好。研究结果在进化的全息基因组理论框架内进行了讨论。
