Similarities and differences in altitudinal versus latitudinal variation for morphological traits in Drosophila melanogaster.

Details

Serval ID
serval:BIB_9F026E0E715A
Type
Article: article from journal or magazin.
Collection
Publications
Institution
Title
Similarities and differences in altitudinal versus latitudinal variation for morphological traits in Drosophila melanogaster.
Journal
Evolution
Author(s)
Klepsatel P., Gáliková M., Huber C.D., Flatt T.
ISSN
1558-5646 (Electronic)
ISSN-L
0014-3820
Publication state
Published
Issued date
2014
Peer-reviewed
Oui
Volume
68
Number
5
Pages
1385-1398
Language
english
Abstract
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 limit. We were interested in testing whether latitude and altitude have similar phenotypic effects, as has often been postulated. Both latitude and altitude were positively correlated with wing area, ovariole number, and cell number. In contrast, latitude and altitude had opposite effects on the ratio between ovariole number and body size, which was negatively correlated with egg production rate per ovariole. We also used transgenic manipulation to examine how increased cell number affects morphology and found that larger transgenic flies, due to a higher number of cells, had more ovarioles, larger wings, and, unlike flies from natural populations, increased wing loading. Clinal patterns in morphology are thus not a simple function of changes in body size; instead, each trait might be subject to different selection pressures. Together, our results provide compelling evidence for profound similarities as well as differences between phenotypic effects of latitude and altitude.
Keywords
Altitude, body size, cell number, clines, latitude, ovariole number, wing loading
Pubmed
Web of science
Create date
14/01/2014 18:23
Last modification date
20/08/2019 16:05
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