Université de Fribourg

Life history consequences of adaptation to larval nutritional stress in Drosophila

Kolss, Munjong ; Vijendravarma, Roshan K. ; Schwaller, Geraldine ; Kawecki, Tadeusz J.

In: Evolution, 2009///doi: 10.1111/j.1558-5646.2009.00718.x

Many animal species face periods of chronic nutritional stress where the individuals must continue to develop, grow and/or reproduce despite low quantity or quality of food. Here we use experimental evolution to study adaptation to such chronic nutritional stress in six replicate Drosophila melanogaster populations selected for the ability to survive and develop within a limited time on a very...

Université de Fribourg

Learning ability and longevity: a symmetrical evolutionary trade-off in Drosophila

Burger, Joep M. S. ; Kolss, Munjong ; Pont, Juliette ; Kawecki, Tadeusz J.

In: Evolution, 2008, vol. 62, no. 6, p. 1294–1304

Learning ability can be substantially improved by artificial selection in animals ranging from Drosophila to rats. Thus these species have not used their evolutionary potential with respect to learning ability, despite intuitively expected and experimentally demonstrated adaptive advantages of learning. This suggests that learning is costly, but this notion has rarely been tested. Here we report...

Université de Fribourg

Reduced learning ability as a consequence of evolutionary adaptation to nutritional stress in Drosophila melanogaster

Kolss, Munjong ; Kawecki, Tadeusz J.

In: Ecological Entomology, 2008///doi:10.1111/j.1365-2311.2008.01007.x

Abstract. 1. Dietary conditions affect cognitive abilities of many species, but it is unclear to what extent this physiological effect translates into an evolutionary relationship.2. A reduction of competitive ability under nutritional stress has been reported as a correlated response to selection for learning ability in Drosophila melanogaster. Here we test whether the reverse holds as well,...

Université de Fribourg

No trade-off between learning ability and parasitoid resistance in Drosophila melanogaster

Kolss, Munjong ; Kraaijeveld, A. R. ; Mery, Frederic ; Kawecki, Tadeusz J.

In: Journal of Evolutionary Biology, 2006, vol. 19, no. 4, p. 1359-1363

Learning ability and immunity to parasites are linked at the physiological level in several insect species. The aim of this work was to investigate the relationship between learning and immunity at an evolutionary level. We tested whether selection for improved learning ability in Drosophila melanogaster led to changes in parasitoid resistance as a correlated response. Similarly, we assayed...