TY - JOUR T1 - <em>Lactobacillus plantarum</em> is a pathobiont for adult Drosophila JF - bioRxiv DO - 10.1101/049981 SP - 049981 AU - David Fast AU - Aashna Duggal AU - Edan Foley Y1 - 2016/01/01 UR - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2016/04/22/049981.abstract N2 - Pathobionts are a unique class of symbionts that cause fulminant, and potentially life-threatening disease in animal hosts under specific circumstances. Despite the relevance of pathobiont containment for prolonged health, we know verylittle about the basis for pathobiont-dependent disease in an animal host. We found that mono-association of adult Drosophila with Lactobacillus plantarum, a widely reported fly commensal, and member of theprobiotic Lactobacillus genus, curtails adult longevity and causes extensive intestinal pathology within the host. Intestinal disease includes widespread loss of progenitor cells, disrupted epithelial organization, and impaired barrier function. We show that this phenotype is reverted in flies mutant for the immune deficiency gene, a regulatory component of fly innate defenses against gut bacteria. Our study uncovers a previously unknown pathogenic aspect of Lactobacillus plantarum association with Drosophila and establishes a simple model for the mechanistic exploration of pathobiont biology. ER -