Biology subjects

Quina, A. S.

Publications and source records attributed to Quina, A. S..

3 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2024

Monandrous flies do remate: plastic and evolutionary consequences of heat exposure on mating behaviour and fertility in Drosophila subobscura

Recent work has reinforced the importance of fertility in predicting population persistence under global warming, especially male fertility. However, most studies on mating and reproductive performance have used as model organism polyandrous species, remaining unclear if and how will monandrous species respond. This is unfortunate as one could expect monandrous species to be particularly susceptible, given their inability to use sperm from multiple males to prevent reduced progeny production due to male sterility. It could be that monandrous females can overcome this toll in fertility by plastically changing their mating rate, or that monandrous populations evolve the ability to remate upon repeated exposure to heat. To test this, we studied the real-time evolution as well as the thermal plastic response of two geographically distinct populations of the monandrous species Drosophila subobscura after 45 generations evolving under a warming scenario. We assessed the impact of heat on male mating behaviour and fertility, as well as the impact of reduced male fertility on female mating behaviour and fertility. We found that in males the toll in mating behaviour due to heat can be recovered with time, whereas that in reproductive success cannot. On the other hand, females exposed to heat-stressed males significantly increased their remating rate, allowing to recover considerably their own reproductive success. Interestingly, most responses were plastic, with no striking effect of adaptation to warming nor of geographical origin. Our work brings new insights into the effects of heat on monandrous species and establishes a model to study how a shift in mating system may affect species ability to respond to climate change.

evolutionary biology↗

bioRxiv2021

No evidence for short-term evolutionary response to a warming environment in Drosophila

Adaptive evolution is key in mediating responses to climate change. Such evolution will expectedly lead to changes in the populations thermal reaction norm and improve their ability to cope with stressful conditions. Conversely, constraints of different nature might limit the adaptive response. Here, we test these expectations by performing a real-time evolution experiment in historically differentiated Drosophila subobscura populations. We address the phenotypic changes of flies evolving for nine generations in a daily fluctuating environment with average constant temperature, or a warming environment with increasing average and amplitude temperature across generations. Our results showed that (1) evolution under a global warming scenario has not led, so far, to a noticeable change in the thermal response; (2) historical background appears to be affecting the responses of populations under the warming environment, particularly at higher temperatures; (3) thermal reaction norms are trait-dependent: while lifelong exposure to low temperature decreases fecundity and productivity but not viability, high temperature causes negative transgenerational effects on productivity and viability, even though fecundity remains high. These findings raise concerns about the short-term efficiency of adaptive responses to the current changing climate.

evolutionary biology↗

bioRxiv2020

High developmental temperature leads to low reproduction despite adult temperature

Phenotypic plasticity can be an important tool in helping organisms to cope with changing thermal conditions and it may show an interdependency between life-stages. For instance, exposure to stressful temperatures during development can trigger a positive plastic response in adults. In this study, we analyse the thermal plastic response of laboratory populations of Drosophila subobscura, derived from two contrasting latitudes of the European cline. We measured fecundity characters in the experimental populations after exposure to five thermal treatments, with different combinations of developmental and adult temperatures (14{degrees}C, 18{degrees}C or 26{degrees}C). We ask whether (1) adult performance is enhanced (or reduced) by exposing flies to higher (or lower) temperatures during development only; (2) flies raised at lower temperatures outperform those developed at higher ones, supporting the "colder is better" hypothesis; (3) there is a cumulative effect on adult performance of exposing both juveniles and adults to higher (or lower) temperatures; (4) there is any evidence for historical effects on adult performance. Our main findings show that (1) higher developmental temperatures led to low reproductive performance regardless of adult temperature, while at lower temperatures reduced performance only occurred when cold conditions were persistent across juvenile and adult stage; (2) flies raised at lower temperatures did not always outperform those developed at other temperatures; (3) there was no (negative) cumulative effect of exposing both juveniles and adults to higher temperatures; (4) both latitudinal populations showed similar thermal plasticity patterns. The negative effect of high developmental temperature on reproductive performance, regardless of adult temperature, highlights the developmental stage as a critical and most vulnerable stage to climate change and associated heat waves.

evolutionary biology↗