In: Developmental Cell, 2019, vol. 50, no. 6, p. 780-792.e7
Size trade-offs of visual versus olfactory organs is a pervasive feature of animal evolution. This could result from genetic or functional constraints. We demonstrate that head sensory organ size trade-offs in Drosophila are genetically encoded and arise through differential subdivision of the head primordium into visual versus non- visual fields. We discover that changes in the temporal...
|
In: Journal of Evolutionary Biology, 2019, vol. 32, no. 5, p. 425–437
Experimental evolution (EE) is a powerful tool for addressing how environmental factors influence life‐history evolution. While in nature different selection pressures experienced across the lifespan shape life histories, EE studies typically apply selection pressures one at a time. Here, we assess the consequences of adaptation to three different developmental diets in combination with...
|
In: Molecular Ecology, 2019, vol. 28, no. 6, p. 1263–1282
Chromosomal inversions, structural mutations that reverse a segment of a chromosome, cause suppression of recombination in the heterozygous state. Several studies have shown that inversion polymorphisms can form clines or fluctuate predictably in frequency over seasonal time spans. These observations prompted the hypothesis that chromosomal rearrangements might be subject to spatially and/or ...
|
In: Nature Education Knowledge, 2011, vol. 3, no. 3, p. 1-10
|
In: PLoS ONE, 2010, vol. 5, no. 8, p. 1-5
Background: The Drosophila C virus (DCV) is a common and well-studied Drosophila pathogen. Although natural infections are known from Drosophila melanogaster and D. simulans, and artificial infections have been reported from several. Drosophila species and other insects, it remains unclear to date whether DCV infections also occur naturally in other Drosophila species. Methods/Principal Findings:...
|
In: npj Aging and Mechanisms of Disease, 2017, vol. 3, no. 1, p. 5
Mechanisms that ensure and maintain the stability of genetic information are fundamentally important for organismal function and can have a large impact on disease, aging, and life span. While a multi-layered cellular apparatus exists to detect and respond to DNA damage, various insults from environmental and endogenous sources continuously affect DNA integrity. Over time this can lead to the...
|
In: Ecology and Evolution, 2017, vol. 7, no. 11, p. 3796–3807
A fundamental question in life‐history evolution is how organisms cope with fluctuating environments, including variation between stressful and benign conditions. For short‐ lived organisms, environments commonly vary between generations. Using a novel experimental design, we exposed wild‐derived Drosophila melanogaster to three different selection regimes: one where generations...
|
In: Journal of Evolutionary Biology, 2016, vol. 29, no. 5, p. 1059–1072
Chromosomal inversions are thought to play a major role in climatic adaptation. In D. melanogaster, the cosmopolitan inversion In(3R)Payne exhibits latitudinal clines on multiple continents. As many fitness traits show similar clines, it is tempting to hypothesize that In(3R)P underlies observed clinal patterns for some of these traits. In support of this idea, previous work in Australian...
|
In: Animal behaviour, 2008, vol. 75, no. 1, p. 71-77
Recent studies on birds show that two steroid hormones, testosterone and corticosterone, stimulate nestling begging and growth. Here, we seek to investigate whether juvenile hormone, a major regulatory insect hormone, has similar effects on larval begging and growth in insects. To this end, we experimentally elevated larval juvenile hormone levels by topical application of methoprene, a potent...
|
In: BioEssays, 2007, vol. 29, no. 6, p. 536-548
Among all organisms, the size of each body part or organ scales with overall body size, a phenomenon called allometry. The study of shape and form has attracted enormous interest from biologists, but the genetic, developmental and physiological mechanisms that control allometry and the proportional growth of parts have remained elusive. Recent progress in our understanding of body‐size...
|
