Geographic selection in the small heat shock gene complex differentiating populations of Drosophila pseudoobscura.

ABSTRACT: Environmental temperature plays a crucial role in determining a species distribution and abundance by affecting individual physiological processes, metabolic activities, and developmental rates. Many studies have identified clinal variation in phenotypes associated with response to environmental stresses, but variation in traits associated with climatic adaptation directly attributed to sequence variation within candidate gene regions has been difficult to identify. Insect heat shock genes are possible agents of thermal tolerance because of their involvement in protein folding, traffic, protection, and renaturation at the cellular level in response to temperature stress. Previously, members of the Drosophila small heat shock protein (sHSP) complex (Hsp23, Hsp26, Hsp27, Hsp67Ba) have been i

SUBMITTER: Graham AM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3331989 | biostudies-literature | 2012 May-Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature