Microclinal variation for ovariole number and body size in Drosophila melanogaster in ?Evolution Canyon?

Temperature stress mediates decanalization and dominance of gene expression in Drosophila melanogaster

The regulatory architecture of gene expression remains an area of active research. Here, we studied how the interplay of genetic and environmental variation affects gene expression by exposing Drosophila melanogaster strains to four different developmental temperatures. At 18°C we observed almost complete canalization with only very few allelic effects on gene expression. In contrast, at the two temperature extremes, 13°C and 29°C a large number of allelic differences in gene expression were detected due to both cis- and trans-regulatory effects. Allelic differences in gene expression were mainly dominant, but for up to 62% of the genes the dominance swapped between 13 and 29°C. Our results are consistent with stabilizing selection causing buffering of allelic expression variation in non-stressful environments. We propose that decanalization of gene expression in stressful environments is not only central to adaptation, but may also contribute to genetic disorders in human populations.

Insulin signalling underlies both plasticity and divergence of a reproductive trait in Drosophila

Phenotypic plasticity is the ability of a single genotype to yield distinct phenotypes in different environments. The molecular mechanisms linking phenotypic plasticity to the evolution of heritable diversification, however, are largely unknown. Here, we show that insulin/insulin-like growth factor signalling (IIS) underlies both phenotypic plasticity and evolutionary diversification of ovariole number, a quantitative reproductive trait, in Drosophila. IIS activity levels and sensitivity have diverged between species, leading to both species-specific ovariole number and species-specific nutritional plasticity in ovariole number. Plastic range of ovariole number correlates with ecological niche, suggesting that the degree of nutritional plasticity may be an adaptive trait. This demonstrates that a plastic response conserved across animals can underlie the evolution of morphological diversity, underscoring the potential pervasiveness of plasticity as an evolutionary mechanism.

Convergent evolution of a reproductive trait through distinct developmental mechanisms in Drosophila

Convergent morphologies often arise due to similar selective pressures in independent lineages. It is poorly understood whether the same or different developmental genetic mechanisms underlie such convergence. Here we show that independent evolution of a reproductive trait, ovariole number, has resulted from changes in distinct developmental mechanisms, each of which may have a different underlying genetic basis in Drosophila. Ovariole number in Drosophila is species-specific, highly variable, and largely under genetic control. Convergent changes in Drosophila ovariole number have evolved independently within and between species. We previously showed that the number of a specific ovarian cell type, terminal filament (TF) cells, determines ovariole number. Here we examine TF cell development in different Drosophila lineages that independently evolved a significantly lower ovariole number than the D. melanogaster Oregon R strain. We show that in these Drosophila lineages, reduction in ovariole number occurs primarily through variations in one of two different developmental mechanisms: (1) reduced number of somatic gonad precursors (SGP cells) specified during embryogenesis; or (2) alterations of somatic gonad cell morphogenesis and differentiation in larval life. Mutations in the D. melanogaster Insulin Receptor (InR) alter SGP cell number but not ovarian morphogenesis, while targeted loss of function of bric-à-brac 2 (bab2) affects morphogenesis without changing SGP cell number. Thus, evolution can produce similar ovariole numbers through distinct developmental mechanisms, likely controlled by different genetic mechanisms.

Quantitative and evolutionary biology of alternative splicing: how changing the mix of alternative transcripts affects phenotypic plasticity and reaction norms

Alternative splicing (AS) of pre-messenger RNA is a common phenomenon that creates different transcripts from a single gene, and these alternative transcripts affect phenotypes. The majority of AS research has examined tissue and developmental specificity of expression of particular AS transcripts, how this specificity affects cell function, and how aberrant AS is related to disease. Few studies have examined quantitative between-individual variation in AS within a cell or tissue type, or in relation to phenotypes, but the results are compelling: quantitative variation in AS affects plastic traits such as stress, anxiety, fear, egg production, muscle performance, energetics and plant growth. Genomic analyses of AS are also at a nascent stage, but have revealed a number of significant evolutionary patterns. Growing knowledge of upstream genes and kinases that regulate AS provides the as-yet little explored potential to examine how these genes and pathways respond to environmental and genotype variables. Research in this area can provide glimpses of a labyrinth of genetic architectures that have rarely been considered in evolutionary and organismal biology, or in quantitative genetics. The scarcity of contribution to knowledge about AS from these fields is illustrated by the fact that heritability of quantitative variation in AS has not yet been determined for any gene in any organism. New research tactics that incorporate quantitative analyses of AS will allow organismal and evolutionary biologists to attain a fuller mechanistic understanding of many of the traits they study, and may lead to more rapid discovery of functionally important polymorphisms.

Segregating variation in the transcriptome: cis regulation and additivity of effects

Properties of genes underlying variation in complex traits are largely unknown, especially for variation that segregates within populations. Here, we evaluate allelic effects, cis and trans regulation, and dominance patterns of transcripts that are genetically variable in a natural population of Drosophila melanogaster. Our results indicate that genetic variation due to the third chromosome causes mainly additive and nearly additive effects on gene expression, that cis and trans effects on gene expression are numerically about equal, and that cis effects account for more genetic variation than do trans effects. We also evaluated patterns of variation in different functional categories and determined that genes involved in metabolic processes are overrepresented among variable transcripts, but those involved in development, transcription regulation, and signal transduction are underrepresented. However, transcripts for proteins known to be involved in protein-protein interactions are proportionally represented among variable transcripts.

Enigmatic Flies: Is Drosophila in the "Evolution Canyon" A Model for Incipient Sympatric speciation?

Extensive studies of biota at "Evolution Canyon" (EC) on Mount Carmel (Nahal Oren Canyon, Israel) includeDrosophilaas one of the main model organisms. The microtopography of the EC permits interslope mixing by easy migration of the flies. Nevertheless, we found strong interslope differentiation inDrosophilapopulations derived from the opposite slopes involving habitat choice, as well as various aspects of induced changes in viability and longevity caused by short-term and lifetime high-temperature treatments. The most exciting findings were related to sexual behavior: interslope differences in mating propensity, sexual discrimination, reproductive activity, peculiarities in courtship song patterns, and significant positive assortative mating. Some of the foregoing effects were also confirmed inD. simulans.The evidence suggests that these populations are examples of ongoing divergence taking place regardless of gene flow. However, tests for interslope genetic differentiation inDrosophila, carried out in a number of laboratories, gave somewhat conflicting results. A possible explanation could be that adaptive differentiation can withstand destructive effects of interslope migration, but it should not necessarily be accompanied by differentiation for selectively neutral markers, unless the latter will be in linkage disequilibrium with selected loci. The last condition can also be maintained despite migration, but only under tight linkage and strong selection. For someDrosophilagenes, linkage disequilibrium is known to decay within just a few kilobases. Thus, differentiation for adaptive trait complexes and relevant candidate genes seems to be much better evidence for interslope divergent selection than that displayed by genetic distances estimated using molecular markers.

Genetic architecture of two fitness-related traits in Drosophila melanogaster: ovariole number and thorax length

In Drosophila melanogaster, ovariole number and thorax length are morphological characters thought to be associated with fitness. Maximum daily egg production in females is positively correlated with ovariole number, while thorax length is correlated with male reproductive success and female fecundity. Though both traits are related to fitness, ovariole number is likely to be under stabilizing selection, while thorax length appears to be under directional selection. Current research has focused on examining the sources of variation for ovariole number in relation to fitness, with a view towards elucidating how segregating variation is maintained in natural populations. Here, we utilize a diallel design to explore the genetic architecture of ovariole number and thorax length in nine isogenic lines derived from a natural population. The full diallel design allows the estimation of general combining ability (GCA), specific combining ability (SCA), and also describes variation due to reciprocal effects (RGCA and RSCA). Ovariole number and thorax length differed with respect to their genetic architecture, reflective of the independent selective forces acting on the traits. For ovariole number, GCA accounted for the majority (67.3%) of variation segregating between the lines, with no evidence of reciprocal effects or inbreeding depression; SCA accounted for a small percentage (3.9%) of the variance, suggesting dominance variation; no reciprocal effects were observed. In contrast, for thorax length, the majority of the non-error variance was accounted for by SCA (17.9%), with only one third as much variance (6.2%) due to GCA. Interestingly, RSCA (nuclear-extranuclear interactions) accounted for slightly more variation (7.5%) than GCA in these data. Thus, genetic variation for thorax length is largely in accord with predictions for a fitness trait under directional selection: little additive genetic variation and substantial dominance variation (including a suggestion of inbreeding depression); while the mechanisms underlying the maintenance of variation for ovariole number are more complex.