Periodic Reporting for period 1 - FlyTryp (Investigating susceptibility to trypanosomatid parasites using Drosophila melanogaster as a model)
Reporting period: 2021-09-01 to 2023-08-31
Host-parasite interactions play an important role in shaping wild and domestic animal populations that, in turn, influence many aspects of human life, such as agriculture, epidemiology and conservation. In particular, vector-borne diseases have a profound impact on human health, and here this project studies trypanosomatid infection in insects. Trypanosomatids are a large group of organisms that are the cause of several diseases in vertebrate hosts, transmitted by biting insects. Most of these insect vectors are challenging to study under laboratory conditions, limiting progress on understanding the genetics of these host-parasite interactions. The project challenges developing a trypanosomatid-host model in the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster - a proven model for experimental studies with a well-established molecular, genetic and genomic toolkit and a vast of prior knowledge of its biology. The overall objective of the project Is to investigate the genetics of fly susceptibility to trypanosomatid parasite infection at the molecular and genetic level using the molecular and genomic information available for Drosophila.
As the result of the project, the host lab at the University of Liverpool has a trypanosomatid culture of Jaenimonas drosophilae, and a reproducible infection protocol for Drosophila melanogaster with this parasite. During the project, multiple D. melanogaster lines from a single mapping population (the Drosophila Genetic Reference Panel) were screened for their susceptibility to trypanosomatid infection, with the results showing high variation in this trait. The project exploits the available molecular and genomic information on Drosophila, to investigate the functional genetic basis of this susceptibility using genomic and transcriptomic approaches.
The project results are expected to reveal functional pathways that make certain flies more susceptible to infection and shed light on different aspects of insect immunity, ecology and evolution of the host-parasite interaction. The established Drosophila-trypanosomatid system can serve as a functional model for other insect-parasite systems such as insect-vectored diseases, and economically relevant species of Diptera.