Biology subjects

Noer, N. K.

Publications and source records attributed to Noer, N. K..

2 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2024

Controlled and polygynous mating in the black soldier fly: advancing breeding programs through quantitative genetic designs

In animal breeding programs, utilizing quantitative genetic designs such as the full-/half-sibling design is fundamental. A full-/half-sibling design demands that mating can be controlled, and individuals can be tracked, enabling construction of a pedigree. In nature, black soldier fly (Hermetia illucens (L.)) males are reported to gather in lekking groups to engage in competitive displays and courtship rituals before mating, and this lekking behavior is described as crucial for mating in this species. We show that a randomly chosen male and a randomly chosen virgin female can readily mate under LED lights in a small container at 28 {degrees}C and 70% RH, demonstrating the ability to mate selected pairs. For males given access to four females, all mated and the time until first mating was considerably shorter than for males given only one female, where 80% of the males mated. Furthermore, when adding four virgin females to a single male, males successfully mated all four females in 52% of cases within our four-hour trial, with 96% of males mating at least twice. Number of matings observed for a male correlated with the number of females from the container that laid an egg clutch, and almost all egg clutches produced offspring. Observed mating thus lead to fertilization, and consecutive matings were with new females resulting in full- and half-sibling offspring. Males with four females that mated a second female did so at a median time of less than three minutes upon ending previous mating, showing that polygynous mating occurred rapidly in this setup. Our findings pave the way for moving H. illucens breeding programs beyond mass selection towards advanced selective breeding designs where controlled mating is typically required. Such designs enable selection for multiple traits simultaneously while controlling inbreeding and can drastically increase rates of selection responses compared to mass selection.

animal behavior and cognition↗

bioRxiv2020

Impacts of thermal fluctuations on heat tolerance and its metabolomic basis across plant and animal species

Temperature varies on a daily and seasonal scale and thermal fluctuations are likely to become even more pronounced under future climate changes. Studies suggest that plastic responses are crucial for species ability to cope with thermal stress, but traditionally laboratory studies on ectotherms are performed at constant temperatures and often limited to a few model species and thus not representative for the natural environment. We argue that thermoregulatory behavior and microhabitat shape the response exerted by different organisms to fluctuating temperatures. Thus, a sessile organism incapable of significant behavioral temperature avoidance will be more plastic and exert greater physiological response to thermal fluctuations than mobile organisms that can quickly evade temperature stress. Here we investigate how acclimation to fluctuating (13.2-26.9{degrees}C) and constant (20.4{degrees}C) temperatures impact heat stress tolerance across a plant (Arabidopsis thaliana) and two animal species (Orchesella cincta and Drosophila melanogaster) inhabiting widely different thermal microhabitats and selective pasts. Moreover, we investigate the underlying metabolic responses of acclimation using an NMR metabolomics approach. We find increased heat tolerance for all species exposed to fluctuating acclimation temperatures; most pronounced for A. thaliana which also showed a strong metabolic response to thermal fluctuations. Generally, sugars were more abundant across A. thaliana and D. melanogaster when exposed to fluctuating compared to constant temperatures, whereas amino acids were less abundant. However, we do not find much evidence for similar metabolomics responses to fluctuating temperature acclimation across species. Differences between the investigated species ecology, their distinct selective past and different ability to behaviorally thermoregulate may have shaped their physiological response to thermal fluctuations.

physiology↗