PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Jessika Consuegra
AU  - Théodore Grenier
AU  - Patrice Baa-Puyoulet
AU  - Isabelle Rahioui
AU  - Houssam Akherraz
AU  - Hugo Gervais
AU  - Nicolas Parisot
AU  - Pedro da Silva
AU  - Hubert Charles
AU  - Federica Calevro
AU  - François Leulier
TI  - Commensal bacteria differentially shape the nutritional requirements of Drosophila during juvenile growth
AID  - 10.1101/728774
DP  - 2019 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 728774
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2019/08/07/728774.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2019/08/07/728774.full
AB  - The interplay between nutritional and microbial environments is one of the decisive environmental inputs that determine juvenile growth trajectory. Nutritional deficiencies contribute to developmental delays, and an immature gut microbiota is a hallmark of pathologies related to childhood undernutrition. However, how commensal bacteria modulate the impact of nutrition on juvenile growth remains elusive. Here, using gnotobiotic Drosophila melanogaster larvae independently associated with two major commensal strains, Acetobacter pomorumWJL (ApWJL) and Lactobacillus plantarumNC8 (LpNC8), we performed a large-scale, systematic nutritional screen based on larval growth in 40 different and precisely controlled nutritional environments. We combined these results with in silico metabolic network reconstruction to define the biosynthetic capacities of Drosophila germ-free larvae and the two commensals. We first establish that ApWJL or LpNC8 differentially fulfills the nutritional requirements of the ex-GF larva and parsed such difference down to individual amino acids, vitamins, other micronutrients and trace metals. We found that Drosophila commensal bacteria not only fortify the host’s diet with essential nutrients but in specific instances, they functionally compensate for host auxotrophies even if the bacteria fail to synthetize the missing nutrient. Our systematic work reveals that beyond the molecular dialogue engaged between the host and its commensal partners, Drosophila engage into an integrated nutritional network with its facultative commensals centered around the sparing and utilization of nutrients. We thus uncover a novel facet of the facultative nutritional mutualism engaged between Drosophila and its commensal bacteria, which allows the juvenile host to better cope with changes in nutrients availability during the critical phase of post-natal growth; hence ensuring optimal host fitness.