Saccharomyces cerevisiae found in the Crop of a Neotropical Drosophila Species Fly Collected in a Natural Forest Remnant

Abstract

Background: Hoang et al. [1] questioned the use of commercial Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a model for investigating Drosophila – yeast association, since this approach “may not be fully representative of hostmicrobe interactions as they operate in nature”. They also claimed: “S. cerevisiae is rarely found with natural populations of D. melanogaster or other Drosophila species”. Indeed, previous choice experiments found that Sophophora subgenus flies (including invasive species D. melanogaster) are more attracted to banana baits inoculated with apiculate yeasts such as Hanseniaspora uvarum over S. cerevisiae inoculated baits. Yet, the forest interior dwelling species (FIDS) D. tripunctata group flies choose preferentially S. cerevisiae inoculated baits over H. uvarum in a natural forest environment.