thesis Aabeer Basu author Aparajita Singh author Suhaas Sehgal author Tanvi Madaan author Nagaraj Guru Prasad author SyCr department Defense against pathogens and parasites requires substantial investment of energy and resources on part of the host. This makes the host immune function dependent on availability and accessibility of resources. A resource deprived host is therefore expected to be more susceptible to infections, although empirical results do not always align with this prediction. Limiting host access to resources can additionally impact within-host pathogen numbers, either directly by altering the amount of resources available to the pathogens for proliferation or indirectly by altering the efficiency of the host immune system. We tested for the effects of host starvation (complete deprivation of resources) on susceptibility to bacterial pathogens, and within-host pathogen proliferation, in Drosophila melanogaster females. Our results show that starvation increases post-infection mortality of the host, but in a pathogen-specific manner. This increase in mortality is always accompanied by increased within-host pathogen proliferation. We therefore propose that starvation compromises host resistance to bacterial infections in Drosophila melanogaster females thereby increasing susceptibility to infections. Dryad2022 10.5061/dryad.pvmcvdnp8 https://research-explorer.ista.ac.at/record/18171 A. Basu, A. Singh, S. Sehgal, T. Madaan, and N. G. Prasad, “Starvation increases susceptibility to bacterial infection and promotes systemic pathogen proliferation in Drosophila melanogaster females.” Dryad, 2022. Basu, Aabeer, et al. <i>Starvation Increases Susceptibility to Bacterial Infection and Promotes Systemic Pathogen Proliferation in Drosophila Melanogaster Females</i>. Dryad, 2022, doi:<a href="https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.pvmcvdnp8">10.5061/dryad.pvmcvdnp8</a>. Basu, A., Singh, A., Sehgal, S., Madaan, T., &#38; Prasad, N. G. (2022). Starvation increases susceptibility to bacterial infection and promotes systemic pathogen proliferation in Drosophila melanogaster females. Dryad. <a href="https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.pvmcvdnp8">https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.pvmcvdnp8</a> Basu A, Singh A, Sehgal S, Madaan T, Prasad NG. Starvation increases susceptibility to bacterial infection and promotes systemic pathogen proliferation in Drosophila melanogaster females. 2022. doi:<a href="https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.pvmcvdnp8">10.5061/dryad.pvmcvdnp8</a> Basu A, Singh A, Sehgal S, Madaan T, Prasad NG. 2022. Starvation increases susceptibility to bacterial infection and promotes systemic pathogen proliferation in Drosophila melanogaster females, Dryad, <a href="https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.pvmcvdnp8">10.5061/dryad.pvmcvdnp8</a>. A. Basu, A. Singh, S. Sehgal, T. Madaan, N.G. Prasad, (2022). Basu, Aabeer, Aparajita Singh, Suhaas Sehgal, Tanvi Madaan, and Nagaraj Guru Prasad. “Starvation Increases Susceptibility to Bacterial Infection and Promotes Systemic Pathogen Proliferation in Drosophila Melanogaster Females.” Dryad, 2022. <a href="https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.pvmcvdnp8">https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.pvmcvdnp8</a>. 231802026-10-21T10:42:59Z2026-10-21T10:43:22Z