Drosophila microbiota impacts the animal's development, immunity and physiology. This video describes a method to quantify bacteria from flies by determining the colony forming units from whole body preparations. The featured protocol demonstrates the technique with flies, reared under gnotobiotic conditions using four bacterial species.
Protocol
This protocol is an excerpt from Koyle et al., Rearing the Fruit Fly Drosophila melanogaster Under Axenic and Gnotobiotic Conditions, J. Vis. Exp. (2016). 1. Dechorionate Eggs and Transfer to Sterile Diet Prepare the biosafety cabinet by spraying the inside (including sides) with 70% ethanol. Wipe the bottom with a lab tissue, and sterilize the hood with UV light for ~15 min. Sterilize all non-biological supplies (specimen cups, paintbrush, forceps, waste…
Representative Results
Supplemental Code File: Sample Calculations. Please click here to view this file (Right click to download).