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Metabolic Analysis of Wound Response in Wolbachia infected Drosophila melanogaster

Jessica Broadway , Sarah Walsh , Jeremy C Brownlie, Horst Joachim Schirra

Abstract

Viral studies of Drosophila melanogaster typically involve injection of virus via a small needle, causing postinjury a wounding/wound healing response, in addition to the effects of viral infection. However, the metabolic response to the needle injury is understudied, and many viral investigations neglect potential effects of this response. Furthermore, the wMel strain of the endosymbiont bacterium Wolbachia pipientis provides anti-viral protection in Drosophila, but its impact on wound healing is unknown. Here we used NMR-based metabolomics to characterise the acute wounding response in Drosophila and the relationship between wound healing and the Wolbachia strain wMel. The most notable response to wounding was found on the initial day of injury and lessened with time in both uninfected and Wolbachia infected flies. Metabolic changes in injured flies revealed evidence of inflammation and Warburg-like metabolism as a response to wounding. In addition, at five days post injury Wolbachia infected injured flies were metabolically more similar to the uninjured flies than uninfected injured flies were at the same time point, indicating an interaction between Wolbachia infection and wound healing. This study is the first metabolomic characterisation of the wound response in Drosophila and its findings are crucial to the metabolic interpretation of viral experiments in Drosophila in both past and future studies.

CH25143  Accepted 07 October 2025

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