Local adaptation to developmental density does not lead to higher mating success in Drosophila melanogaster

Abstract

In this study, we investigate the effect of local adaptation to developmental density on male mating success in laboratory populations of Drosophila melanogaster. Mating success is known to be influenced by body condition which can in turn be influenced by local adaptation. We test the hypothesis that males adapted to a given environment have higher mating success when assayed in that environment. We used males selected for adaptation to high larval density and their controls which are reared at low larval density. We grew assay males in low and high densities whereas the focal females (raised at low larval density) used for the experiment belonged to the common ancestor of selected and control populations. We considered selected males grown at high density and control males grown at low density as 'adapted'. Similarly, we considered selected males grown at low density and control males grown at high density as 'nonadapted'. Selected male belonging to a given treatment (larval density) was made to compete with control male of the same treatment for mating with ancestral female. We quantified components of reproductive fitness: mating latency, copulation duration, mating success and number of progeny sired by the 'adapted' and 'nonadapted' males. The results show that local adaptation does not lead to higher mating success in populations adapted to their own larval rearing environment.

Sex differences in local adaptation: what can we learn from reciprocal transplant experiments?

“…This supports the hypothesis that males in better condition are better at attracting mates, perhaps due to the better match between their phenotype and the environment [85,86]. However, in the other two studies, there was no difference in mating success between adapted and non-adapted males [90,91].…”

“…Apart from field transplant experiments, laboratory experiments have also been used in studies addressing whether locally adapted males have greater mating success than non-adapted males [89 -91]. In these studies, male Drosophila melanogaster from laboratory populations that had been experimentally evolved under different environmental conditions (different temperatures [89,90] or different larval densities [91]) were competed against each other in mating trials. In each of these studies, trials were carried out in both environments, allowing males from both environments to play the 'adapted' and 'non-adapted' role.…”

Intergenerational paternal effect of adult density inDrosophila melanogaster

“…In essence, density often determines the nature and intensity of selection acting on a population and has been studied within the broader premises of density dependent selection (MacArthur & Wilson, ; Mueller, ; Prasad & Joshi, ). Much of the existing literature investigated adaptation to increased (but stable) juvenile or adult density, using experimental evolution on laboratory populations of D. melanogaster (Mueller, Guo, & Ayala, ; Mueller & Sweet, ; Nagarajan, Natarajan, Jayaram, & Joshi, ; Sarangi, Nagarajan, Dey, Bose, & Joshi, ; Shenoi et al, ; Shenoi & Prasad, ). However, little is known about adaptation to fluctuating density.…”

Marking Drosophila suzukii (Diptera: Drosophilidae) with Fluorescent Dusts

“…Studies on other Drosophila spp. usually failed to refer to method evaluations and only assumed that there were no significant adverse effects [33][34][35][36][37][38][39] or cited evaluations of unspecified [40] or outdated pigments (inorganic, CdS and ZnS based, "Helecon" pigments, United States Radium Corporation, U.S.) [41][42][43]. Therefore, there is a need for a more thorough assessment of the effect of modern-day, specified, fluorescent pigments for the marking of D. suzukii on the survival and behaviour of the flies.…”

“…Moreover, it is warranted to evaluate the persistence of the marker and optimise the method of application. Like in studies with mosquitoes, the pigments are commonly applied on adult Drosophila flies by shaking the flies in a small amount of powder [31,[43][44][45][46], through self-marking by enclosing the flies in dusted vials [34,47], by dusting them with a bulb duster/powder insufflator [29,30,32,48], or through unspecified means [33,[35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][49][50][51]. In Drosophilidae, it is also possible to use the aforementioned self-marking methodology for Tephritidae as a ptilinum is present [52,53].…”