Commensal bacteria act as a broad genetic buffer in Drosophila during chronic under-nutrition

Eukaryotic genomes encode several well-studied buffering mechanisms that robustly maintain invariant phenotypic outcome despite fluctuating environmental conditions. Here we show that the gut microbiota, represented by a single Drosophila facultative symbiont, Lactobacillus plantarum (LpWJL), acts also as a broad genetic buffer that masks the contribution of the cryptic genetic variations in the host under nutritional stress. During chronic under-nutrition, LpWJL consistently reduces variation in different host phenotypic traits and ensures robust organ patterning; LpWJL also decreases genotype dependent expression variation, particularly for development-associated genes. We further demonstrate that LpWJL buffers via reactive oxygen species (ROS) signaling whose inhibition severely impairs microbiota-mediated phenotypic robustness. We thus identified an unexpected contribution of facultative symbionts to Drosophila fitness by assuring developmental robustness and phenotypic homogeneity in times of nutritional stress.