Pigmentation and fitness trade-offs through the lens of artificial selection.

ABSTRACT: Pigmentation is a classic phenotype that varies widely and adaptively in nature both within and among taxa. Genes underlying pigmentation phenotype are highly pleiotropic, creating the potential for functional trade-offs. However, the basic tenets of this trade-off hypothesis with respect to life-history traits have not been directly addressed. In natural populations of Drosophila melanogaster, the degree of melanin pigmentation covaries with fecundity and several other fitness traits. To examine correlations and potential trade-offs associated with variation in pigmentation, we selected replicate outbred populations for extreme pigmentation phenotypes. Replicate populations responded rapidly to the selection regime and after 100 generations of artificial selection were phenotyped for pigm

SUBMITTER: Rajpurohit S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5095197 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature