Variability in thermal and phototactic preferences in Drosophila may reflect an adaptive bet-hedging strategy.

ABSTRACT: Organisms use various strategies to cope with fluctuating environmental conditions. In diversified bet-hedging, a single genotype exhibits phenotypic heterogeneity with the expectation that some individuals will survive transient selective pressures. To date, empirical evidence for bet-hedging is scarce. Here, we observe that individual Drosophila melanogaster flies exhibit striking variation in light- and temperature-preference behaviors. With a modeling approach that combines real world weather and climate data to simulate temperature preference-dependent survival and reproduction, we find that a bet-hedging strategy may underlie the observed interindividual behavioral diversity. Specifically, bet-hedging outcompetes strategies in which individual thermal preferences are heritable. Anima

SUBMITTER: Kain JS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5063146 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature