Skip to main content
bioRxiv
  • Home
  • About
  • Submit
  • ALERTS / RSS
Advanced Search
New Results

Phenotypic plasticity, but not genetic adaptation, underlies seasonal variation in the cold hardening response of Drosophila melanogaster

View ORCID ProfileHelen M. Stone, View ORCID ProfilePriscilla A. Erickson, View ORCID ProfileAlan O. Bergland
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/691741
Helen M. Stone
1University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22904
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for Helen M. Stone
  • For correspondence: hs6fp@virginia.edu
Priscilla A. Erickson
1University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22904
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for Priscilla A. Erickson
Alan O. Bergland
1University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22904
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for Alan O. Bergland
  • Abstract
  • Full Text
  • Info/History
  • Metrics
  • Preview PDF
Loading

Abstract

In temperate regions, an organism’s ability to rapidly adapt to seasonally varying environments is essential for its survival. In response to seasonal changes in selection pressure caused by variation in temperature, humidity, and food availability, some organisms exhibit plastic changes in phenotype. In other cases, seasonal variation in selection pressure can rapidly increase the frequency of genotypes that offer survival or reproductive advantages under the current conditions. Little is known about the relative influences of plastic and genetic changes in short lived organisms experiencing seasonal environmental fluctuations. Cold hardening is a seasonally relevant plastic response in which exposure to cool, but nonlethal, temperatures significantly increases the organism’s ability to later survive at freezing temperatures. In the present study, we demonstrate seasonal variation in cold hardening in Drosophila melanogaster and test the extent to which plasticity and adaptive tracking underlie that seasonal variation. We measured the cold hardening response of flies from outdoor mesocosms over the summer, fall, and winter. We bred outdoor mesocosm-caught flies for two generations in the lab and matched each outdoor cohort to an indoor control cohort of similar genetic background. We measured the cold hardening response of indoor and field-caught flies and their laboratory-reared F1 and F2 progeny to determine the roles of seasonal environmental plasticity, parental effects, and genetic changes on cold hardening. We also tested the relationship between cold hardening and other factors, including age, developmental density, food substrate, presence of antimicrobials, and supplementation with live yeast. We found strong plastic responses to a variety of field- and lab-based environmental effects, but no evidence of seasonally varying parental or genetic effects on cold hardening. We therefore conclude that seasonal variation in the cold hardening response results from environmental influences and not genetic changes.

Footnotes

  • ↵† Contact Information Email: hs6fp{at}virginia.edu, Phone: (434) 924-2332, Address: Gilmer Hall 063, 485 McCormick Road, Charlottesville, VA 22904

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY-NC 4.0 International license.
Back to top
PreviousNext
Posted July 03, 2019.
Download PDF
Email

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word about bioRxiv.

NOTE: Your email address is requested solely to identify you as the sender of this article.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Phenotypic plasticity, but not genetic adaptation, underlies seasonal variation in the cold hardening response of Drosophila melanogaster
(Your Name) has forwarded a page to you from bioRxiv
(Your Name) thought you would like to see this page from the bioRxiv website.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Share
Phenotypic plasticity, but not genetic adaptation, underlies seasonal variation in the cold hardening response of Drosophila melanogaster
Helen M. Stone, Priscilla A. Erickson, Alan O. Bergland
bioRxiv 691741; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/691741
Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo Facebook logo Google logo LinkedIn logo Mendeley logo
Citation Tools
Phenotypic plasticity, but not genetic adaptation, underlies seasonal variation in the cold hardening response of Drosophila melanogaster
Helen M. Stone, Priscilla A. Erickson, Alan O. Bergland
bioRxiv 691741; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/691741

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One

Subject Area

  • Evolutionary Biology
Subject Areas
All Articles
  • Animal Behavior and Cognition (3609)
  • Biochemistry (7585)
  • Bioengineering (5533)
  • Bioinformatics (20825)
  • Biophysics (10344)
  • Cancer Biology (7995)
  • Cell Biology (11653)
  • Clinical Trials (138)
  • Developmental Biology (6617)
  • Ecology (10224)
  • Epidemiology (2065)
  • Evolutionary Biology (13639)
  • Genetics (9557)
  • Genomics (12856)
  • Immunology (7930)
  • Microbiology (19568)
  • Molecular Biology (7675)
  • Neuroscience (42182)
  • Paleontology (308)
  • Pathology (1259)
  • Pharmacology and Toxicology (2208)
  • Physiology (3271)
  • Plant Biology (7058)
  • Scientific Communication and Education (1295)
  • Synthetic Biology (1953)
  • Systems Biology (5433)
  • Zoology (1119)