Parallel trait adaptation across opposing thermal environments in experimental Drosophila melanogaster populations.

ABSTRACT: Thermal stress is a pervasive selective agent in natural populations that impacts organismal growth, survival, and reproduction. Drosophila melanogaster exhibits a variety of putatively adaptive phenotypic responses to thermal stress in natural and experimental settings; however, accompanying assessments of fitness are typically lacking. Here, we quantify changes in fitness and known thermal tolerance traits in replicated experimental D. melanogaster populations following more than 40 generations of evolution to either cyclic cold or hot temperatures. By evaluating fitness for both evolved populations alongside a reconstituted starting population, we show that the evolved populations were the best adapted within their respective thermal environments. More strikingly, the evolved population

SUBMITTER: Tobler R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4755034 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature