Reproductive fitness of Drosophila is maximised by optimal developmental temperature
Autor: | Heinrich Dircksen, Martina Gáliková, Thirnahalli Nagaraj Girish, Peter Klepsatel |
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Rok vydání: | 2019 |
Předmět: |
0106 biological sciences
0303 health sciences biology Reproductive success Physiology 030310 physiology Aquatic Science biology.organism_classification Fecundity 010603 evolutionary biology 01 natural sciences Intraspecific competition Ovariole 03 medical and health sciences Evolutionary biology Insect Science Melanogaster Developmental plasticity Animal Science and Zoology Drosophila melanogaster Molecular Biology Drosophila Ecology Evolution Behavior and Systematics |
Zdroj: | Journal of Experimental Biology. |
ISSN: | 1477-9145 0022-0949 |
DOI: | 10.1242/jeb.202184 |
Popis: | Whether the character of developmental plasticity is adaptive or non-adaptive has often been a matter of controversy. Although thermal developmental plasticity has been studied in Drosophila for several traits, it is not entirely clear how it affects reproductive fitness. We, therefore, investigated how developmental temperature affects reproductive performance (early fecundity and egg-to-adult viability) of wild-caught Drosophila melanogaster. We have tested competing hypotheses on the character of developmental thermal plasticity using a full factorial design with three developmental and adulthood temperatures within the natural thermal range of this species. To account for potential intraspecific differences, we examined flies from tropical (India) and temperate (Slovakia) climate zones. Our results show that flies from both populations raised at intermediate developmental temperature (25°C) have comparable or higher early fecundity and fertility at all tested adulthood temperatures, while lower (17°C) or higher developmental temperatures (29°C) did not entail any advantage under the tested thermal regimes. Importantly, the superior thermal performance of flies raised at 25°C is apparent even after taking two traits positively associated with reproductive output into account – body size and ovariole number. Thus, in Drosophila melanogaster, development at a given temperature does not necessarily provide any advantage at this thermal environment in terms of reproductive fitness. Our findings strongly support the optimal developmental temperature hypothesis which claims that at different thermal environments the highest fitness is achieved when an organism is raised at its optimal developmental temperature. |
Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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