Constitutive and Plastic Gene Expression Variation Associated with Desiccation Resistance Differences in the Drosophila americana Species Group.

ABSTRACT: Stress response mechanisms are ubiquitous and important for adaptation to heterogenous environments and could be based on constitutive or plastic responses to environmental stressors. Here we quantify constitutive and plastic gene expression differences under ambient and desiccation stress treatments, in males and females of three species of Drosophila known to differ in desiccation resistance. Drosophila novamexicana survives desiccation trials significantly longer than the two subspecies of Drosophila americana, consistent with its natural species range in the desert southwest USA. We found that desiccation stress reduces global expression differences between species-likely because many general stress response mechanisms are shared among species-but that all species

SUBMITTER: Davis JS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7073762 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature