Adaptation to chronic nutritional stress in Drosophila

old_uid6824
titleAdaptation to chronic nutritional stress in Drosophila
start_date2009/04/29
schedule10h
onlineno
summaryMany animals have to get by with food of suboptimal quality. While plastic responses to such chronic nutritional stress have been well investigated, it is not clear how populations respond to selection imposed by such stress over evolutionary time. We have been studying the experimental evolution of replicated populations of Drosophila melanogaster forced to develop over many generations on a poor food. The results indicate that the flies had the genetic potential to adapt to this nutritional stress, but analysis of correlated responses revealed some surprising trade-offs. Preliminary analysis of gene expression profiles suggests that the evolutionary response cannot be predicted based on the plastic response
responsiblesLebreton