Biology subjects

Nieberding, C.

Publications and source records attributed to Nieberding, C..

5 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2026

Contrasting patterns of lifetime fat metabolism in the vinegar fly, Drosophila melanogaster, and the parasitoid amber wasp, Leptopilina heterotoma

Fat accumulation and use is critical for sustaining life. Most insects show a typical response to feeding where fat is accumulated when sufficient sugars and other carbohydrates are consumed. Parasitoid insects are an exception, because most species do not accumulate fat when feeding on a sugar-rich diet. Studies on fat metabolism generally measure fat content early in life without considering lipid metabolism as a dynamic process that is expected to change as life progresses. In this paper, we compared fat accumulation and use throughout the lives of adult female Drosophila melanogaster and females of 5 inbred lines of the parasitoid wasp Leptopilina heterotoma. We expected that fat accumulation would take place irrespective of teneral fat content in D. melanogaster. We found that fat D. melanogaster initially used fat reserves, while lean flies economized on fat stores. Both lean and fat flies started accumulating fat after 7 days of life, indeed showing a typical response for insects. Unlike other parasitoids, L. heterotoma populations differs in fat accumulation patterns that we expected to observe also between inbred lines. In none of the inbred lines, however, did fat accumulation take place. Our results did reveal that inbred lines differed in the rate at which fat was used mainly later during life. We further confirmed that D. melanogaster pupal size was highly correlated with adult female size for both D. melanogaster and L. heterotoma. Overall, our findings for L. heterotoma provide strong evidence that genetic background has a major impact on the rate at which fat is used over a lifetime.

physiology↗

bioRxiv2023

Oviposition-related behaviours of Limenitis camilla in a common garden experiment

Human induced environmental changes are accelerating at an unprecedented pace, forcing organisms to rapidly adjust their behaviours. There is broad evidence that the main driver of the ongoing biodiversity crisis is land-use change, that reduces and fragments natural habitats. However, the consequence of habitat fragmentation on behavioural responses of fitness-related traits such as oviposition site selection in insects, which represent about 50% of \ Earths species diversity, have been so far understudied. In herbivorous insects, oviposition-related behaviours determine larval food access, and thus the fate of the next generation. We present a pilot study to assess differences in oviposition-related behaviours in Limenitis camilla butterflies from Wallonia (Belgium), one of the most fragmented regions in Europe. We first quantified variation in functional habitat connectivity for L. camilla across Wallonia and found that fragmented habitats had more abundant, but less evenly distributed Lonicera periclymenum, the host plant of L. camilla. Secondly, we compared in a semi-natural experimental setting the behaviours of field-caught L. camilla females originating from habitats with contrasted landscape connectivity. We found differences in behaviours related to flight investment: butterflies from fragmented woodlands spent more time in non-compass orientation flight, which we associated with dispersal, than butterflies from homogenous woodlands, where L. periclymenum was less abundant and more evenly distributed. Although results from this study should be interpreted with caution given the limited sample size, they provide valuable insights for the advancement of behavioral research that aims to assess the effects of global changes on insects.

animal behavior and cognition↗

bioRxiv2020

Sexual selection drives maladaptive learning under climate warming

O_LIThe impact of learning ability and sexual selection on the climate and biodiversity crisis are currently unclear. C_LIO_LIUsing the African butterfly Bicyclus anynana, which shows strong phenotypic plasticity (i.e., polyphenism) in response to temperature, we tested whether learning affects mate preferences under climate warming. C_LIO_LIWe first modelled climate warming scenarios and then showed experimentally that as temperature becomes an unreliable cue to the onset of the dry season, adult butterflies displayed the wet season rather than the dry season form. C_LIO_LIExperienced females that were exposed to different male seasonal phenotypes during sexual maturation changed sexual preferences. C_LIO_LIFemale fertilization success was reversed for naive compared to experienced females, likely reducing female fitness following climate warming. C_LIO_LIOur results emphasize the importance of sexual selection, learning, and their fitness consequences for understanding (mal)adaptation of natural populations to climate warming. C_LI

evolutionary biology↗

bioRxiv2018

Common practice tissue extraction in solvent does not reflect actual emission of a sex pheromone during courtship in a butterfly

Olfactory communication can be of critical importance for mate choice decisions. Lepidoptera are key model systems for understanding olfactory communication, particularly considering sex pheromone signaling in the context of sexual selection. Solvent extraction or rinsing of pheromone-producing structures is a widespread method for quantifying sex pheromones, but such measures reflect what is stored and may not represent what is actually emitted by an individual during courtship. Here, we address this point for the first time by quantifying the components of the male sex pheromone (MSP) of interacting Bicyclus anynana butterflies, a species for which much information is available onthe role played by MSPs in affecting mating success. Using headspace sampling during courtship and solvent extraction after completion of experiments using the same males, we were able to track individual traits. Our results show that solvent extracts do not reflect quantities of MSP components emitted by live butterflies. We further show that MSP amounts obtained using headspace sampling correlated with male mating success, but solvent extracts did not. Our results further strongly suggest that males actively control MSP emission when faced with increased male-male competition. Common practice solvent extracts may thus not serve as an adequate proxy for male sex pheromone signaling as they are perceived by choosy females. Our study serves as a proof of principle that quantification of male sex pheromone components depends on the method of collection, which could apply to many other insects using short-range chemical signals. This affects our understanding of how sexual selection shapes the evolution of sexually-selected chemical traits.

evolutionary biology↗

bioRxiv2017

Partial restoration of mutational robustness after addition of genetic polymorphism and in the presence of sexual selection

The interaction between mutational (i.e. genetic) robustness, cryptic genetic variation and epistasis is currently under much debate, as is the question whether mutational robustness evolved under direct selection or as a by-product of environmental robustness. Here we report that mutational robustness was restored in a mutant line of the butterfly Bicyclus anynana after the spontaneous mutation, comet, appeared in a genetically polymorphic wild type population. The comet mutation modified two phenotypic traits known to be under sexual selection in this butterfly: the dorsal forewing eyespot, which is normally round, but became comet-shaped, and the androconia, the structures producing the male sex pheromone, which were reduced in size. The comet mutant line remained phenotypically stable for [~]7 seven years, but when outcrossed to the genetically polymorphic wild type population, the outcrossed comet line surprisingly recovered the wild type phenotype within 8 generations. This suggests that mutational robustness against the comet mutation was recovered in the comet outcrossed line by epistatic interactions with the genetic polymorphism originating from wild types. The extent of wild type phenotype recovery in the comet outcrossed line was trait- and developmental temperature-dependent, such that mutational robustness was partially recovered at high, but not at low developmental temperatures. We hypothesized that sexual selection through mate choice, which is sex-reversed between developmental temperatures in this butterfly, could produce mutational robustness at a high (but not at a low) temperature. Females are the choosy sex and exert stabilizing or directional selection on male secondary sexual wing traits but only at higher temperatures. Male mating success experiments under semi-natural conditions then revealed that males with the typical comet mutant phenotype suffered from lower mating success compared to wild type males, while mating success of comet males resembling wild types was partially restored. Altogether, we document the roles of cryptic genetic variation and epistasis in restoration of mutational robustness against a spontaneous mutation with known fitness effects, and we provide experimental evidence, for the first time to our knowledge, that sexual selection can produce mutational robustness.

evolutionary biology↗