Why do stressed fruit flies die faster? This is a biological clue

A new study shows that stressed fruit flies may die earlier because their social life affects their biological characteristics

It is well known that when fruit flies have more stressful social contact, such as when males gather together, or females and males gather together, their lifespan will be shorter and healthier, but the reasons behind this are not yet clear

Scientists led by the University of Leeds believe that the answer may lie in the microbes in fruit flies

They found that the microbiota of fruit flies that experienced a stressful social environment changed the most-indicating a biological link between social stress, immunity, and longevity

Laurin McDowell, a researcher at the University of Leeds School of Biology and co-author of the report, said: "It is interesting that different social manipulations have different effects

Scientists have focused their attention on a type of fruit flies that are often used in research because they share about 75% of the disease-causing genes with humans

Researchers began to discover whether the social environment of fruit flies led to changes in their microbiota, either through the transfer of bacteria between fruit flies, or the impact of social contact on the immune and stress responses of fruit flies

The research team observed a series of social environments, including different groups of larvae; put an old fruit fly with a group of young fruit flies; grouped fruit flies of the same age, or grouped with same-sex partners

However, social grouping or isolation has little effect on the microbiome of adult females

Since the microbiota is known to have an important influence on host aging, these new discoveries may provide a link between stressful environments and health

Tom Ritchie co-led the research while studying for a PhD at Leeds School of Biology

Now, he is a post-doctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Aging Biology.

"We have observed that social operations that change lifespan also change the microbiota, which suggests that there is a connection between the two

The research titled " Social environment drives sex and age-specific variation in Drosophila melanogaster microbiome composition and predicted function " was published on September 8, 2021 in the "Molecular Ecology" magazine

Dr.

"The social environment has been proven to change the health and well-being of human beings, as well as their microbiota