Succinate: A microbial product that modulates Drosophila nutritional physiology

Dear Editor, Gut microorganisms process food in animal guts and release many metabolic by-products,which are predicted to influence host physiological processes such as energy and lipid metabolism.Here,we investigate how succi-nate,a TCA cycle intermediate that is a major predicted release product of gut bacteria in Drosophila,influences the nutritional physiology of its Drosophila host.We ad-ministered succinate as a dietary supplement to microbe-free Drosophila,and quantified key nutritional indices.