Developmental speed affects ecological stoichiometry and adult fat reserves in Drosophila melanogaster

Abstract

The elemental composition of organisms belongs to a suite of functional traits that change during development in response to environmental conditions. However, associations between adaptive variations in developmental speed and elemental body composition are not well understood. We compared body mass, elemental body composition, food uptake and fat metabolism of Drosophila melanogaster male fruit flies in relation to their larval development speed. Slowly developing flies had higher body carbon concentration than rapidly developing and intermediate flies. Rapidly developing flies had the highest body nitrogen concentration, while slowly developing flies had higher body nitrogen levels than flies with intermediate speed of development. The carbon-to-nitrogen ratio was therefore lower in rapidly developing flies than in slow and intermediate flies. We also had a group of flies grown individually and their body mass and elemental body composition were similar to those of rapidly developing individuals grown in groups. This suggests that rapid growth is not suppressed by stress. Feeding rates were lowest in the slowly developing flies. The amount of triacylglycerides was highest in the flies with intermediate developmental speed which optimizes development under many climatic conditions. Although low food intake slows down developmental speed and the accumulation of body fat reserves in slowly developing flies, their phenotype conceivably facilitates survival under higher stochasticity of their environments. Rapidly developing flies grew with less emphasis on storage build-up. Overall, this study shoes that a combination of bet-hedging, adaptive tracking and developmental plasticity enables fruit flies to respond adaptively to environmental uncertainty.

Serotoninergic Modulation of Phototactic Variability Underpins a Bet-Hedging Strategy in Drosophila melanogaster

“…Thus, there is likely an interplay between generation/lifespan length and the timescale of environmental fluctuations. Indeed, modeling suggests that bet-hedging is an adaptive response to environmental fluctuations at specific timescales roughly corresponding to the lifespan (Krams et al, 2020). Melatonin is an antioxidant, and may lengthen the lifespan of flies (Terán et al, 2012).…”

“…The fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster is one of the most studied model organisms in biology. Flies appear to use bet-hedging as an adaptive response to environmental uncertainty, exhibiting variation in their bodily development (Krams et al, 2020) and light-and temperature-preference behaviors (Kain et al, 2015). Phototactic diversity appears to be a form of fly personality and mechanistic experiments identified the neurotransmitter serotonin (5-HT) as a suppressor of phototactic variability (Kain et al, 2012).…”

Spider odors induce stoichiometric changes in fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster

“…As shown earlier, developmental speed is an important determinant of the concentration of biogenic elements in the body ( Trakimas et al. 2019 ; Krams et al. 2020 ).…”

Ecological Stoichiometry of Bumblebee Castes, Sexes, and Age Groups

“…The percentage of C and N content was measured from the mass of whole bees, using an element analyzer EuroVector EA3000 (Eurovector Srl, Pavia, Italy; Krams et al, 2020Krams et al, , 2021. Samples of C and N concentrations were measured for each ovipositing queen, while in samples of males, workers, and young queens we merged three individual bumblebees for each analyzed sample unit.…”

“…Ecological stoichiometry focuses on the interactions of organisms with their environments, analyzing how ecological and evolutionary factors shape their bodies' elemental composition (Sterner and Elser, 2002;Filipiak et al, 2017). Several environmental factors have the potential to influence the elemental composition of organisms, including pollution (De Senerpont Domis et al, 2014;Janssens et al, 2017), ambient temperature (Janssens et al, 2015;Zhang et al, 2016), developmental speed (Trakimas et al, 2019;Krams et al, 2020), and predation risk (Janssens et al, 2015;Krams et al, 2016Krams et al, , 2021Van Dievel et al, 2016;Zhang et al, 2016). The general stress paradigm states that exposure to stressors generally increases the production of steroid hormones (Hawlena and Schmitz, 2010a;Rinehart and Hawlena, 2020).…”