Drosophila parasitoids go to space: Unexpected effects of spaceflight on hosts and their parasitoids - Drosophila data

In this study, fruit flies and their parasitic wasps were sent to the ISS to examine changes in host immunity and parasite virulence. Key findings from this work are as follows: (a) Spaceflight spiked the expression of inflammation genes in fruit flies; (b) Spaceflight enhanced tumor growth in flies already suffering from chronic inflammation; (c) Spaceflight did not significantly affect parasitic wasp development, emergence, or the expression of virulence genes; (d) Parasite mutants with visible wing color and shape alterations were obtained. This study contains Drosophila melanogaster data. The Leptopilina heterotoma14 data is deposited in OSD-609, https://osdr.nasa.gov/bio/repo/data/studies/OSD-609, and the Leptopilina boulardi17 data is deposited in OSD-610, https://osdr.nasa.gov/bio/repo/data/studies/OSD-610.