Lack of response to artificial selection on developmental stability of partial wing shape components in Drosophila melanogaster

Heritable Micro-environmental Variance Covaries with Fitness in an Outbred Population of Drosophila serrata

The genetic basis of stochastic variation within a defined environment, and the consequences of such micro-environmental variance for fitness are poorly understood . Using a multigenerational breeding design in Drosophila serrata, we demonstrated that the micro-environmental variance in a set of morphological wing traits in a randomly mating population had significant additive genetic variance in most single wing traits. Although heritability was generally low (<1%), coefficients of additive genetic variance were of a magnitude typical of other morphological traits, indicating that the micro-environmental variance is an evolvable trait. Multivariate analyses demonstrated that the micro-environmental variance in wings was genetically correlated among single traits, indicating that common mechanisms of environmental buffering exist for this functionally related set of traits. In addition, through the dominance genetic covariance between the major axes of micro-environmental variance and fitness, we demonstrated that micro-environmental variance shares a genetic basis with fitness, and that the pattern of selection is suggestive of variance-reducing selection acting on micro-environmental variance.

Little effect of HSP90 inhibition on the quantitative wing traits variation in Drosophila melanogaster

Drosophila wings have been a model system to study the effect of HSP90 on quantitative trait variation. The effect of HSP90 inhibition on environmental buffering of wing morphology varies among studies while the genetic buffering effect of it was examined in only one study and was not detected. Variable results so far might show that the genetic background influences the environmental and genetic buffering effect of HSP90. In the previous studies, the number of the genetic backgrounds used is limited. To examine the effect of HSP90 inhibition with a larger number of genetic backgrounds than the previous studies, 20 wild-type strains of Drosophila melanogaster were used in this study. Here I investigated the effect of HSP90 inhibition on the environmental buffering of wing shape and size by assessing within-individual and among-individual variations, and as a result, I found little or very weak effects on environmental and genetic buffering. The current results suggest that the role of HSP90 as a global regulator of environmental and genetic buffering is limited at least in quantitative traits.