Physiological climatic limits in Drosophila: patterns and implications
Top Cited Papers
- 15 March 2010
- journal article
- review article
- Published by The Company of Biologists in Journal of Experimental Biology
- Vol. 213 (6), 870-880
- https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.037630
Abstract
SUMMARY: Physiological limits determine susceptibility to environmental changes, and can be assessed at the individual, population or species/lineage levels. Here I discuss these levels in Drosophila, and consider implications for determining species susceptibility to climate change. Limits at the individual level in Drosophila depend on experimental technique and on the context in which traits are evaluated. At the population level, evidence from selection experiments particularly involving Drosophila melanogaster indicate high levels of heritable variation and evolvability for coping with thermal stresses and aridity. An exception is resistance to high temperatures, which reaches a plateau in selection experiments and has a low heritability/evolvability when temperatures are ramped up to a stressful level. In tropical Drosophila species, populations are limited in their ability to evolve increased desiccation and cold resistance. Population limits can arise from trait and gene interactions but results from different laboratory studies are inconsistent and likely to underestimate the strength of interactions under field conditions. Species and lineage comparisons suggest phylogenetic conservatism for resistance to thermal extremes and other stresses. Plastic responses set individual limits but appear to evolve slowly in Drosophila. There is more species-level variation in lower thermal limits and desiccation resistance compared with upper limits, which might reflect different selection pressures and/or low evolvability. When extremes are considered, tropical Drosophila species do not appear more threatened than temperate species by higher temperatures associated with global warming, contrary to recent conjectures. However, species from the humid tropics may be threatened if they cannot adapt genetically to drier conditions.Keywords
This publication has 96 references indexed in Scilit:
- Thermal preference in DrosophilaJournal of Thermal Biology, 2009
- Changes in body melanisation and desiccation resistance in highland vs. lowland populations of D. melanogasterJournal of Insect Physiology, 2008
- Impacts of climate warming on terrestrial ectotherms across latitudeProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2008
- Critical thermal limits depend on methodological contextProceedings. Biological sciences, 2007
- Interspecies physiological variation as a tool for cross-species assessments of global warming-induced endangerment: validation of an intrinsic determinant of macroecological and phylogeographic structureBiology Letters, 2007
- Rapid evolution of smell and taste receptor genes during host specialization in Drosophila sechelliaProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2007
- Can artificially selected phenotypes influence a component of field fitness? Thermal selection and fly performance under thermal extremesProceedings. Biological sciences, 2006
- Physiological constraints on organismal response to global warming: mechanistic insights from clinally varying populations and implications for assessing endangermentBiology Letters, 2005
- Adaptation of Drosophila to temperature extremes: bringing together quantitative and molecular approachesJournal of Thermal Biology, 2003
- Evolution of thermal sensitivity of ectotherm performanceTrends in Ecology & Evolution, 1989