Counting Colony Forming Units (CFUs): Quantifying Bacteria from Fly Bodies

Abstract

Source: Koyle, M. L., et al. Rearing the Fruit Fly & Drosophila melanogaster Under Axenic and Gnotobiotic Conditions. J. Vis. Exp. (2016).

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

1. 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 container, 400 ml sterilized water, and 100 ml of 0.6% sodium hypochlorite) by spraying with ethanol and immediately placing in the biosafety cabinet....

Results

Supplemental Code File: Sample Calculations. Please click here to view this file (Right click to download).

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Materials

List of materials used in this article

Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
Brewer's Yeast	MP Biomedicals, LLC.	903312
Glucose	Sigma Aldrich	158968-3KG
Agar	Fisher--Lab Scientific	fly802010
Welch's 100% Grape Juice Concentrate	Walmart or other grocery store	9116196
Cage: 32 oz. Translucent Round Deli Container	Webstaurant Store	999L5032Y
Translucent Round Deli Container Lid	Webstaurant Store	999YNL500
Stock Bottles	Genesee Scientific	32-130
Droso-Plugs	Genesee Scientific	49-101
Nylon Mesh	Genesee Scientific	57-102
Plastic Bushing	Home Depot	100404002
Plastic Bushing Cap	Home Depot	100153897
Specimen Cup	MedSupply Partners	K01-207067
Repeater M4	Eppendorf	4982000322
50 ml Centrifuge Tubes	TrueLine Centrifuge Tubes	TR2003
Food Boxes	USA Scientific	2316-5001
Lysing Matrix D Bulk	MP Biomedicals, LLC.	116540434
Filter Pipette Tips, 300 µl	USA Scientific	1120-9810
Petri Dishes	Laboratory Product Sales	M089303
Ethanol	Decon Laboratories, INC.	2701
Paintbrush	Walmart	5133
Forceps	Fisher	08-882
Household Bleach (6-8% Hypochlorite)	Walmart	550646751
Universal Peptone	Genesee Scientific	20-260
Yeast Extract	Fisher Scientific	BP1422-500
Dipotassium Phosphate	Sigma Aldrich	P3786-1KG
Ammonium Citrate	Sigma Aldrich	25102-500g
Sodium Acetate	VWR	97061-994
Magnesium Sulfate	Fisher Scientific	M63-500
Manganese Sulfate	Sigma Aldrich	10034-96-5
MRS Powder	Sigma Aldrich	69966-500G
96 Well Plate Reader	BioTek (Epoch)	NA
1.7 ml Centrifuge Tubes	USA Scientific	1615-5500
Filter Pipette Tips, 1,000 µl	USA Scientific	1122-1830
96 Well Plates	Greiner Bio-One	655101
Ceramic Beads	MP Biomedicals, LLC.	6540-434
Tissue Homogenizer	MP Biomedicals, LLC.	116004500
Class 1 BioSafety Cabinet	Thermo Scientific	Model 1395