Invasive fruit flies are a global threat to the agricultural industry with estimated annual losses exceeding 1.5 billion dollars. Particularly, the drosophilid flies <i>Drosophila suzukii</i> (also known as the spotted winged <i>Drosophila, </i>SWD) have become established in many places in the US and are major concerns for growers and associated stakeholders. Current controls rely on the use of insecticides, which drives up production cost and is environmentally unsustainable. Efficacy is also limited because insecticides only act on adult flies but not larvae that feed inside fruits. Novel methods for control are needed and the microbiome offers some promising opportunities.  Drosophilid flies are frequently associated with symbiotic bacteria and yeast in the gut. We are interested in the extent to which fly-associated microbiome impacts SWD nutrition and foraging. Through culturing, we have isolated multiple bacterial and yeast species from SWD, as well as from their target berry crops collected from the field. By experimentally manipulating the microbiome of SWD, we found that the fly microbiome is essential for SWD larval colonization and development in fruits. We also discovered that SWD flies are actively manipulating the microbiome composition of their potential host fruits, consequently altering the fruit volatile profile to promote pest attraction. Together, our project yields foundational knowledge of fruit fly invasion biology in the context of insect-microbe-plant interaction. It has high potential to lead to the development of innovative strategies that will transform fruit fly management and have a broad applicability to other invasive pests. These include: disrupting symbiotic microbial functions, altering fruit-SWD communications mediated by the microbes, and exploiting microbial-derived semiochemicals to make better insect attractants and repellents.

Microbiome in host plant colonization and foraging of an invasive fruit fly

2019 Fall National Meeting

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