Few genetic and environmental correlations between life history and stress resistance traits affect adaptation to fluctuating thermal regimes.

Laboratory selection in thermal regimes that differed in the amplitude and the predictability of daily fluctuations had a marked effect on stress resistance and life history traits in Drosophila simulans. The observed evolutionary changes are expected to be the result of both direct and correlated responses to selection. Thus, a given trait might not evolve independently from other traits because of genetic correlations among these traits. Moreover, different test environments can induce novel genetic correlations because of the activation of environmentally dependent genes. To test whether and how genetic correlations among stress resistance and life history traits constrain evolutionary adaptation, we used three populations of D. simulans selected for 20 generations in constant, predictable and unpredictable daily fluctuating thermal regimes and tested each of these selected populations in the same three thermal regimes. We explored the relationship between genetic correlations between traits and the evolutionary potential of D. simulans by comparing genetic correlation matrices in flies selected and tested in different thermal test regimes. We observed genetic correlations mainly between productivity, body size, starvation and desiccation tolerance, suggesting that adaptation to the three thermal regimes was affected by correlations between these traits. We also found that the correlations between some traits such as body size and productivity or starvation tolerance and productivity were determined by test regime rather than selection regime that is expected to limit genetic adaptation to thermal regimes in these traits. The results of this study suggest that several traits and several environments are needed to explore adaptive responses, as genetic and environmentally induced correlations between traits as results obtained in one environment cannot be used to predict the response of the same population in another environment.

Phenotypic plasticity is not affected by experimental evolution in constant, predictable or unpredictable fluctuating thermal environments.

The selective past of populations is presumed to affect the levels of phenotypic plasticity. Experimental evolution at constant temperatures is generally expected to lead to a decreased level of plasticity due to presumed costs associated with phenotypic plasticity when not needed. In this study, we investigated the effect of experimental evolution in constant, predictable and unpredictable daily fluctuating temperature regimes on the levels of phenotype plasticity in several life history and stress resistance traits in Drosophila simulans. Contrary to the expectation, evolution in the different regimes did not affect the levels of plasticity in any of the traits investigated even though the populations from the different thermal regimes had evolved different stress resistance and fitness trait means. Although costs associated with phenotypic plasticity are known, our results suggest that the maintenance of phenotypic plasticity might come at low and negligible costs, and thus, the potential of phenotypic plasticity to evolve in populations exposed to different environmental conditions might be limited.

Predictability rather than amplitude of temperature fluctuations determines stress resistance in a natural population of Drosophila simulans.

The adaptability of organisms to novel environmental conditions depends on the amount of genetic variance present in the population as well as on the ability of individuals to adjust their phenotype through phenotypic plasticity. Here, we investigated the phenotypic plasticity induced by a single generation's exposure to three different temperature regimes with respect to several life-history and stress-resistance traits in a natural population of Drosophila simulans. We studied a constant as well as a predictably and an unpredictably fluctuating temperature regime. We found high levels of phenotypic plasticity among all temperature regimes, suggesting a strong influence of both temperature fluctuations and their predictability. Increased heat tolerance was observed for flies developed in both types of fluctuating thermal environments compared with flies developed in a constant environment. We suggest that this was due to beneficial hardening when developing in either fluctuating temperature environment. To our surprise, flies that developed in constant and predictably changing environments were similar to each other in most traits when compared to flies from the unpredictably fluctuating environment. The unpredictably changing thermal environment imposed the most stressful condition, resulting in the lowest performance for stress-related traits, even though the absolute temperature changes never exceeded that of the predictably fluctuating environment. The overall decreased stress resistance of flies in the unpredictably fluctuating environment may be the consequence of maladaptive phenotypic plasticity in this setting, indicating that the adaptive value of plasticity depends on the predictability of the environment.

Age-induced perturbation in cell membrane phospholipid fatty acid profile of longevity-selected Drosophila melanogaster and corresponding control lines.

Various compositions of fatty acids can produce cell membranes with disparate fluidity and propensity for oxidation. The latter characteristic, which can be evaluated via the peroxidation index (PI), has a fundamental role in the development of the "membrane-pacemaker theory" of aging. This study tried to evaluate differences between the membrane phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) profile of longevity-selected (L) and corresponding control (C) lines of Drosophila melanogaster with age (3, 9, 14 and 19 days) and its consequences on phase transition temperature as a function of membrane fluidity. Despite an equal proportion of polyunsaturated fatty acids, PI and double bond index over all ages in both experimental groups, monounsaturated fatty acids showed significant variation with advancement of age in both L and C lines. A significant age-associated elevation of the unsaturation vs. saturation index in parallel with a gradual reduction of the mean melting point was observed in longevous flies. PLFA composition of the L vs. C lines revealed a dissimilarity in 3-day old samples, which was based on the positive loading of C(14:0) and C(18:3) as well as negative loading of C(18:0). The findings of this study are not in agreement with the principle of the "membrane pacemaker theory" linking PI and longevity. However, the physiochemical properties of PLFAs in longevity lines may retard the cells' senescence by maintaining optimal membrane functionality over time. Identical susceptibility to peroxidation of both types of lines underlines the involvement of other mechanisms in protecting the bio-membrane against oxidation, such as the reduced production of mitochondrial reactive oxygen species or improvement of the antioxidant defense system in longer-lived phenotypes. Concurrent assessments of these mechanisms in relation to cell membrane PLFA composition may clarify the cellular basis of lifespan in this species.