The ability to express heat-shock proteins (HSP) under thermal stress is an essential mechanism for ectotherms to cope with unfavourable conditions. In this study, we investigate if Copper ...butterflies originating from different altitudes and/or being exposed to different rearing and induction temperatures show differences in HSP70 expression. HSP70 expression increased substantially at the higher rearing temperature in low-altitude butterflies, which might represent an adaptation to occasionally occurring heat spells. On the other hand, high-altitude butterflies showed much less plasticity in response to rearing temperatures, and overall seem to rely more on genetically fixed thermal stress resistance. Whether the latter indicates a higher vulnerability of high-altitude populations to global warming needs further investigation. HSP70 expression increased with both colder and warmer induction temperatures.
Heat shock genes are considered to be likely candidate genes for environmental stress resistance. Nucleotide variation in the coding sequence of the small heat shock genes (hsps) hsp26 and hsp27 from ...Drosophila melanogaster was studied in flies originating from the Netherlands and eastern Australia. The hsp26 gene was polymorphic for an insertion/deletion of three extra amino acids and two nonsynonymous changes in all populations. The hsp27 gene exhibited two nonsynonymous changes and three synonymous mutations. The hsp26 polymorphism showed a latitudinal cline along the east coast of Australia. This pattern was not confounded by the fact that the shsps are located in the inversion In(3 L)P which also shows a latitudinal cline in eastern Australia. A similar latitudinal cline was found for the previously described variation in hsp23, while frequencies of hsp27 alleles did not change with latitude. These findings suggest that variation at two of the shsps or closely linked loci are under selection in natural populations of D. melanogaster.
It has frequently been suggested that trait heritabilities are environmentally sensitive, and there are genetic trade‐offs between tolerating different environments such as hot and cold or constant ...and fluctuating temperatures. Future climate predictions suggest an increase in both temperatures and their fluctuations. How species will respond to these changes is uncertain, particularly as there is a lack of studies which compare genetic performances in constant vs. fluctuating environments. In this study, we used a nested full‐sib/half‐sib breeding design to examine how the genetic variances and heritabilities of egg‐to‐adult viability differ at high and low temperatures with and without daily fluctuations in temperatures using Drosophila melanogaster as a model organism. Although egg‐to‐adult viability was clearly sensitive to developmental temperatures, heritabilities were not particularly sensitive to developmental temperatures. Moreover, we found that egg‐to‐adult viabilities at different developmental temperatures were positively correlated, suggesting a common genetic background for egg‐to‐adult viability at different temperatures. Finding both a uniform genetic background coupled with rather low heritabilities insensitive to temperatures, our results suggest evolutionary responses are unlikely to be limited by temperature effects on genetic parameters or negative genetic correlations, but by the direct effects of stressful temperatures on egg‐to‐adult viability accompanied with low heritabilities.
Induction of heat shock proteins (Hsp) is a well‐known mechanism through which cells cope with stressful conditions. Hsp are induced by a variety of extrinsic stressors. However, recently intrinsic ...stressors (aging and inbreeding) have been shown to affect expression of Hsp. Increased homozygosity due to inbreeding may disrupt cellular homeostasis by causing increased expression of recessive deleterious mutations and breakdown of epistatic interactions. We investigated the effect of inbreeding and the rate of inbreeding on the expression of Hsp70, larval heat resistance and fecundity. In Drosophila melanogaster we found that inbred lines (F ≈ 0.67) had significantly up‐regulated expression of Hsp70, and reduced heat resistance and fecundity as compared with outbred control lines. A significant negative correlation was observed between Hsp70 expression and resistance to an extreme heat stress in inbred lines. We interpreted this as an increased requirement for Hsp70 in the lines suffering most from inbreeding depression. Inbreeding depression for fecundity was reduced with a slower rate of inbreeding compared with a fast rate of inbreeding. Thus, the effectiveness of purging seems to be improved with a slower rate of inbreeding.
We addressed the question if local adaptation to a thermal gradient is possible in spite of a high gene flow among closely spaced populations of two species of Drosophila from the island of La Gomera ...(Canary Islands). Variation in multiple traits related to stress resistance in different life stages was measured in both species in flies collected from five localities at different altitudes and thereby with different climatic conditions. Based on microsatellite loci, the populations were not genetically differentiated. However, 18 of the 24 independent traits measured showed significant differentiation among populations of Drosophila buzzatii, but only nine of 25 for Drosophila simulans. This difference in the number of traits might reflect higher habitat specificity and thus higher potential for local adaptation of D. buzzatii than D. simulans. We found clinal variation, as some traits showed significant linear regressions on altitude, but more on altitude cubed.
Genetic prerequisites for the evolution of sexual dimorphism, sex‐specific heritabilities and low or negative genetic correlations between homologous traits in males and females are rarely found. ...However, sexual dimorphism is evolving rapidly following environmental change, suggesting that sexual dimorphism and its genetic background could be environmentally sensitive. Yet few studies have explored the sensitivity of the genetic background of sexual dimorphism on environmental variation. In this study, on Drosophila melanogaster, we used a large nested full‐sib–half‐sib breeding design where families were split into four different developmental temperatures: two constant temperature treatments of 25 and 30 °C and two cycling temperatures with means of 25 and 30 °C, respectively. After emergence, we tested heat shock tolerance of adult flies. We found that sexual dimorphism was strongly affected by temperature during development. Moreover, we found that female heritability was significantly lower in flies developing at hot temperature and more so under hot and cycling temperatures. Interestingly, most of the genetic variation for heat shock tolerance was orthogonal (i.e. noncorrelated) between sexes, allowing independent evolution of heat shock tolerance in males and females. These findings give support to the hypothesis that the evolution of sexual dimorphism can be influenced by the environments experienced during development.
Fitness decreases associated with inbreeding depression often become more pronounced in a stressful environment. The functional genomic causes of these inbreeding‐by‐environment (I × E) interactions, ...and of inbreeding depression in general, are poorly known. To further our understanding of I × E interactions, we performed a genome‐wide gene expression study of a single inbred line that suffers from temperature‐sensitive lethality. We confirmed that increased differential expression between the thermosensitive line and the control line occurs at the restrictive temperature. This demonstrates that I × E interactions in survival are reflected in similar I × E interactions at the gene expression level. To make an impression of the cellular response associated with the lethal effect, we analysed all functional annotation terms that were overrepresented among the differentially expressed genes. Some sets of differentially expressed genes function in the general stress response, and these are more likely to also be differentially expressed in other studies of inbreeding, inbreeding depression, immunity and heat stress. Other sets of differentially expressed genes are shared with studies of gene expression in inbred lines, but not studies of the response to extrinsic stress, and represent a general transcriptomic signature of inbreeding. Finally, some sets of genes have an annotation that is not reported in other studies. These we consider to be candidates for the genes harbouring the mutations responsible for the thermosensitive phenotype, as these mutations are expected to be unique to this line. These genes may also serve as candidate QTL in studies of thermal tolerance and heat resistance.
The springtail
Megaphorura arctica (Onychiuridae: Collembola) inhabits the arctic and sub-arctic parts of the northern hemisphere where it on a seasonal basis will be exposed to severe cold and ...desiccating conditions. In the present study we compared how traits of stress resistance differed between two populations of
M. arctica that were collected at a high arctic site (Spitsbergen) and a sub-arctic site (Akureyri, Iceland) with contrasting thermal environments. In addition we investigated how cold and desiccation affected the phospholipid fatty acid composition of
M. arctica from Spitsbergen. The springtails from Spitsbergen were the most cold tolerant and this was linked to an almost three times higher level of trehalose accumulation during cryoprotective dehydration (15% and 5% of tissue dry weight in the Spitsbergen and Iceland populations, respectively). Although cryoprotective dehydration is intimately related to desiccation stress it was shown that
M. arctica had a higher mortality when dehydrated over ice (−10 or −20
°C) than when dehydrated at temperatures above 1
°C. Thus, survival was lower after exposure to −10
°C than after exposure to a relative humidity of 91.2% RH at +1
°C although both treatments led to the same level of dehydration. Exposure to both cold (−10 and −20
°C) and desiccation at +1
°C caused significant changes in the phospholipid fatty acid composition with some similarities. These changes included a decrease in average chain length of the fatty acids due primarily to an increase in the phospholipid fatty acids 16:0 and a decrease in 18:3 and 20:4ω6.
This investigation presents results from a genetic characterization of 5 Danish dog breeds genotyped on the CanineHD BeadChip microarray with 170,000 SNP. The breeds investigated were 1) Danish Spitz ...(DS; n=8), 2) Danish-Swedish Farm Dog (DSF; n=18), 3) Broholmer (BR; n=22), 4) Old Danish Pointing Dog (ODP; n=24), and 5) Greenland Dog (GD; n=23). The aims of the investigation were to characterize the genetic profile of the abovementioned dog breeds by quantifying the genetic differentiation among them and the degree of genetic homogeneity within breeds. The genetic profile was determined by means of principal component analysis (PCA) and through a Bayesian clustering method. Both the PCA and the Bayesian clustering method revealed a clear genetic separation of the 5 breeds. The level of genetic variation within the breeds varied. The expected heterozygosity (HE) as well as the degree of polymorphism (P%) ranked the dog breeds in the order DS>DSF>BR>ODP>GD. Interestingly, the breed with a tenfold higher census population size compared to the other breeds, the Greenland Dog, had the lowest within-breed genetic variation, emphasizing that census size is a poor predictor of genetic variation. The observed differences in variation among and within dog breeds may be related to factors such as genetic drift, founder effects, genetic admixture, and population bottlenecks. We further examined whether the observed genetic patterns in the 5 dog breeds can be used to design breeding strategies for the preservation of the genetic pool of these dog breeds.
Multiple traits of stress resistance were investigated in the epedaphic springtail
Orchesella cincta. Second generation adults from five laboratory populations were compared with respect to ...resistance to extreme temperatures and desiccation, and traits relevant to climatic adaptation. Populations were collected along a 2000-km latitudinal gradient ranging from Denmark to southern Italy and reared under the same standard laboratory conditions. Traits investigated were resistance to high and low temperature, desiccation resistance, body size and water loss rate (WLR). Results showed genetically based differences in resistance to high and low temperature, desiccation, WLR, water pool and body size between populations. Individuals from the most northern population had the highest desiccation—and cold shock resistance, and the lowest heat shock resistance. Females were significantly more desiccation resistant than males. The results of cold shock resistance showed a positive increase with lowest environmental temperature recorded at the sites of population origin, whereas heat shock resistance showed a positive increase with highest recorded temperature at the sites of population origin. Desiccation resistance increased towards the most southern and northern population, suggesting that both low and high temperature extremes affect desiccation resistance. Body mass, water pool and WLR showed interpopulation as well as sex specific variation. This provides evidence for geographical variation in stress resistance of springtails related to climatic conditions.
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