Drosophila parasitoids go to space: Unexpected effects of spaceflight on hosts and their parasitoids (original) (raw)

Publications and Research

Jennifer Chou, CUNY City CollegeFollow
Johnny R. Ramroop, CUNY City CollegeFollow
Amanda M. Saravia-Butler, NASA Ames Research Center
Brian Wey, CUNY City CollegeFollow
Matthew P. Lera, NASA Ames Research Center
Medaya L. Torres, NASA Ames Research Center
Mary Ellen Heavner, CUNY City CollegeFollow
Janani Iyer, NASA Ames Research Center
Siddhita D. Mhatre, NASA Ames Research Center
Sharmila Bhattacharya, NASA Ames Research Center
Shubha Govind, CUNY City CollegeFollow

Abstract

While fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster) and humans exhibit immune system dysfunction in space, studies examining their immune systems’ interactions with natural parasites in space are lacking. Drosophila parasitoid wasps modify blood cell function to suppress host immunity. In this study, naive and parasitized ground and space flies from a tumor-free control and a blood tumor-bearing mutant strain were examined. Inflammation-related genes were activated in space in both fly strains. Whereas control flies did not develop tumors, tumor burden increased in the space-returned tumor-bearing mutants. Surprisingly, control flies were more sensitive to spaceflight than mutant flies; many of their essential genes were downregulated. Parasitoids appeared more resilient than fly hosts, and spaceflight did not significantly impact wasp survival or the expression of their virulence genes. Previously undocumented mutant wasps with novel wing color and wing shape were isolated post-flight and will be invaluable for host-parasite studies on Earth.