Effects of a Single Viral Infection in Drosophila melanogaster

Presentation Date

7-2015

Abstract

Co-infections are common in nature, yet they are relatively under studied at the population level. A collaborative effort in the laboratories of Drs. Miura, Parent and Wichman in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Idaho has focused on developing Drosophila melanogaster (the common fruit fly) and two of its natural viruses, Drosophila X virus (DXV) and Drosophila C Virus (DCV) as a tractable model for multi-level study of co-infection. A first step in developing this model is to evaluate the short and long term impacts of a single and co-infection on host demographic variables. I have primarily focused my attention on understanding how the viruses affect the mortality, fecundity, and offspring development of D. melanogaster. Preliminary results from my experiments suggest that flies respond differently to infection when infected with DCV compared to when they are infected with DXV. The next step will be to conduct experiments with co-infections using DXV and DCV.

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Effects of a Single Viral Infection in Drosophila melanogaster

Co-infections are common in nature, yet they are relatively under studied at the population level. A collaborative effort in the laboratories of Drs. Miura, Parent and Wichman in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Idaho has focused on developing Drosophila melanogaster (the common fruit fly) and two of its natural viruses, Drosophila X virus (DXV) and Drosophila C Virus (DCV) as a tractable model for multi-level study of co-infection. A first step in developing this model is to evaluate the short and long term impacts of a single and co-infection on host demographic variables. I have primarily focused my attention on understanding how the viruses affect the mortality, fecundity, and offspring development of D. melanogaster. Preliminary results from my experiments suggest that flies respond differently to infection when infected with DCV compared to when they are infected with DXV. The next step will be to conduct experiments with co-infections using DXV and DCV.