In: Journal of Evolutionary Biology, 2013, vol. 26, no. 7, p. 1508–1520
The life history of the fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) is well understood, but fitness components are rarely measured by following single individuals over their lifetime, thereby limiting insights into lifetime reproductive success, reproductive senescence and post‐reproductive lifespan. Moreover, most studies have examined long‐ established laboratory strains rather than freshly...
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In: Frontiers in Genetics, 2013, vol. 4, p. -
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In: Cell Metabolism, 2013, vol. 17, no. 1, p. 10–19
Reduced reproduction is associated with increased fat storage and prolonged life span in multiple organisms, but the underlying regulatory mechanisms remain poorly understood. Recent studies in several species provide evidence that reproduction, fat metabolism, and longevity are directly coupled. For instance, germline removal in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans promotes longevity in part...
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In: The Quarterly Review of Biology, 2013, vol. 88, no. 3, p. 185–218
Here we discuss life-history evolution from the perspective of adaptive phenotypic plasticity, with a focus on polyphenisms for somatic maintenance and survival. Polyphenisms are adaptive discrete alternative phenotypes that develop in response to changes in the environment. We suggest that dauer larval diapause and its associated adult phenotypes in the nematode (Caenorhabditis elegans),...
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In: The EMBO Journal, 2013, vol. 32, no. 11, p. 1626–1638
Throughout the animal kingdom, steroid hormones have been implicated in the defense against microbial infection, but how these systemic signals control immunity is unclear. Here, we show that the steroid hormone ecdysone controls the expression of the pattern recognition receptor PGRP‐LC in Drosophila, thereby tightly regulating innate immune recognition and defense against bacterial...
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In: Frontiers in Genetics, 2012, vol. 3, p. -
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In: Journal of Theoretical Biology, 2001, vol. 212, no. 3, p. 345-354
To date, only a few studies have focused on the effects of sex on population dynamics. Previous models have typically found that sexual reproduction dampens population fluctuations. Although asexual and sexual reproduction are just the two endpoints along a continuum of varying rates of sex, previous work has ignored the effects of intermediate degrees of sex on population dynamics. Here we study...
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In: Molecular Ecology, 2012, vol. 21, no. 19, p. 4748–4769
Understanding the genetic underpinnings of adaptive change is a fundamental but largely unresolved problem in evolutionary biology. Drosophila melanogaster, an ancestrally tropical insect that has spread to temperate regions and become cosmopolitan, offers a powerful opportunity for identifying the molecular polymorphisms underlying clinal adaptation. Here, we use genome‐wide next‐...
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In: Molecular Ecology, 2012, vol. 21, no. 20, p. 4931–4941
The genomic basis of adaptation to novel environments is a fundamental problem in evolutionary biology that has gained additional importance in the light of the recent global change discussion. Here, we combined laboratory natural selection (experimental evolution) in Drosophila melanogaster with genome‐wide next generation sequencing of DNA pools (Pool‐Seq) to identify alleles that are...
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In: Experimental Gerontology, 2011, vol. 46, no. 2, p. 141–147
In the last two decades it has become clear that hormones and gene mutations in endocrine signaling pathways can exert major effects on lifespan and related life history traits in worms, flies, mice, and other organisms. While most of this research has focused on insulin/insulin-like growth factor-1 signaling, a peptide hormone pathway, recent work has shown that also lipophilic hormones play...
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