In: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2008, vol. 105, no. 17, p. 6368–6373
Ablation of germ-line precursor cells in Caenorhabditis elegans extends lifespan by activating DAF-16, a forkhead transcription factor (FOXO) repressed by insulin/insulin-like growth factor (IGF) signaling (IIS). Signals from the gonad might thus regulate whole-organism aging by modulating IIS. To date, the details of this systemic regulation of aging by the reproductive system are not...
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In: Molecular Ecology, 2016, vol. 25, no. 5, p. 1023–1026
Clines in phenotypes and genotype frequencies across environmental gradients are commonly taken as evidence for spatially varying selection. Classical examples include the latitudinal clines in various species of Drosophila, which often occur in parallel fashion on multiple continents. Today, genomewide analysis of such clinal systems provides a fantastic opportunity for unravelling the...
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In: Current Opinion in Insect Science, 2016, vol. 16, p. 1–8
In most animals reproduction trades off with somatic maintenance and survival. Physiologically this trade-off is mediated by hormones with opposite effects on reproduction and maintenance. In many insects, this regulation is achieved by an endocrine network that integrates insulin-like/IGF-1 signaling (IIS), juvenile hormone (JH), and the yolk precursor vitellogenin (Vg) (or, more generally,...
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In: Journal of Evolutionary Biology, 2015, vol. 28, no. 4, p. 826–840
Clines in life history traits, presumably driven by spatially varying selection, are widespread. Major latitudinal clines have been observed, for example, in Drosophila melanogaster, an ancestrally tropical insect from Africa that has colonized temperate habitats on multiple continents. Yet, how geographic factors other than latitude, such as altitude or longitude, affect life history in this...
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In: Science, 2007, vol. 318, p. 1255-1256
A theory of trade-offs to explain why we age has spurred 50 years of interdisciplinary research in evolution and molecular genetics.
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In: eLife, 2015, vol. 4, p. e09556
When a female fly mates it produces a hormone that increases the size of its midgut and enhances fat metabolism in order to provide the energy needed for reproduction.
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In: Experimental Gerontology, 2006, vol. 42, no. 3, p. 247-251
The extension of life span by diet restriction in Drosophila has been argued to occur without limiting calories. Here we directly measure the calories assimilated by flies when maintained on full- and restricted-diets. We find that caloric intake is reduced on all diets that extend life span. Flies on low-yeast diet are long-lived and consume about half the calories of flies on high-yeast diets,...
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In: Evolution, 2014, vol. 68, no. 5, p. 1385–1398
Understanding how natural environments shape phenotypic variation is a major aim in evolutionary biology. Here, we have examined clinal, likely genetically based variation in morphology among 19 populations of the fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) from Africa and Europe, spanning a range from sea level to 3000 m altitude and including locations approximating the southern and northern range...
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In: Molecular Ecology, 2014, vol. 23, no. 7, p. 1813–1827
Sequencing of pools of individuals (Pool‐Seq) represents a reliable and cost‐effective approach for estimating genome‐wide SNP and transposable element insertion frequencies. However, Pool‐Seq does not provide direct information on haplotypes so that, for example, obtaining inversion frequencies has not been possible until now. Here, we have developed a new set of diagnostic marker...
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In: Evolution, 2013, vol. 67, no. 12, p. 3573–3587
The major goal of evolutionary thermal biology is to understand how variation in temperature shapes phenotypic evolution. Comparing thermal reaction norms among populations from different thermal environments allows us to gain insights into the evolutionary mechanisms underlying thermal adaptation. Here, we have examined thermal adaptation in six wild populations of the fruit fly (Drosophila...
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