The effects of adaptation to urea on feeding rates and growth in Drosophila larvae

Das

Deep

et al. 2022

J Genet

Many different laboratory studies of adaptation to larval crowding in Drosophila spp. have all yielded the evolution of pre-adult competitive ability, even though the ecological context in which crowding was experienced varied across studies. However, the evolution of competitive ability was achieved through different suites of traits in studies wherein crowding was imposed in slightly different ways. Earlier studies showed the evolution of increased competitive ability via increased larval feeding rate and tolerance to nitrogenous waste, at the cost of food to biomass conversion efficiency. However, more recent studies, with crowding imposed at relatively low food levels, showed the evolution of competitive ability via decreased larval development time and body size, and an increase in the time efficiency of conversion of food to biomass, with no change in larval feeding rate or waste tolerance. Taken together, these studies have led to a more nuanced understanding of how the specific details of larval numbers, food amounts etc. can affect which traits evolve to confer increased competitive ability. Here, we report results from a study in which egg size and hatching time were assayed on three sets of populations adapted to larval crowding experienced in slightly different ways, as well as their low density ancestral control populations. Egg size and hatching time are traits that may provide larvae with initial advantages under crowding through increased starting larval size and a temporal head-start, respectively. In each set of populations adapted to some form of larval crowding, the evolution of longer and wider eggs was seen, compared to controls, thus making egg size the first consistent correlate of the evolution of increased larval competitive ability across Drosophila populations experiencing crowding in slightly different ways. Among the crowding-adapted populations, those crowded at the lowest overall eggs/food density, but the highest density of larvae in the feeding band,showed the largest eggs, on an average. All three sets of crowding-adapted populations showed shorter average egg hatching time than controls, but the difference was significant only in the case of populations experiencing the highest feeding band density. Our results underscore the importance of considering factors other than just eggs/food density when studying the evolution of competitive ability, as also the advantages of having multiple selection regimes within one experimental set up, allowing for a more nuanced understanding of the subtlety with which adaptive evolutionary trajectories can vary across even fairly similar selection regimes..

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 52%

Density-dependent selection in Drosophila: evolution of egg size and hatching time

Das

Deep

et al. 2022

J Genet

“…In the current study, we did not include an actual reduction in waste levels within larvae due to detoxification, although this can certainly be implemented in the future. Moreover, this relationship between waste levels and bite rate could work independently of the knowledge that late-eclosing adults in some crowding-adapted populations evolved reduced feeding rate alongside increased waste tolerance (Borash et al, 1998), or that populations adapted to tolerate high levels of metabolic waste products such as urea or ammonia showed the evolution of lower feeding rates compared to unselected control populations (Borash et al, 2000;Bitner et al, 2021).…”

Section: Findings From Overall Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

An individual-based simulation framework exploring the ecology and mechanistic underpinnings of larval crowding in laboratory populations ofDrosophila

Joshi

2023

Preprint

The study of larval competition in laboratory populations of Drosophila, implemented via the crowding of larval cultures, has contributed greatly to the understanding of the ecology of competition, the evolution of larval competitive ability, and formed the basis of rigorous testing of the theory of density-dependent selection. Earlier studies led to the view that the outcomes of larval competition, and resulting evolutionary consequences of crowding-adaptation, could largely be understood by varying the starting density of individuals in a crowded culture. However, recent studies have shown that the results of adaptation to larval crowding may not be well predicted by the total larval density (i.e., total starting individuals/total volume of food). Cultures raised at the same total density but at different egg number and food volume combinations were shown to have different underlying density-specific fitness functions, and crowding-adaptation in each of these cultures was attained through different evolutionary trajectories as well. A recent study showed that cultures with not just the same density, but the same egg and food volume combination, achieved through food columns of differing diameter and height, could also differ greatly in fitness-related trait outcomes. In that study, the density of larvae in the feeding band (volume of food close to the surface in contact with air, to which larval feeding is largely restricted) was a very important factor in predicting the outcomes of larval competition. Given these recent findings, it is important to understand the overall role of feeding band density, and how it influences density-specific fitness functions in different kinds of crowded cultures. As the older models of larval competition are now insufficient to capture current empirical data, we constructed an individual-based simulation framework informed in part by these more recent findings, in order to better understand the evolutionary ecology and mechanistic underpinnings of larval competition, and predict robust experiments for expanding our understanding of the process of larval competition in Drosophila.

Density-dependent selection in Drosophila: evolution of egg size and hatching time

Das

Deep

et al. 2021

Preprint

Many different laboratory studies of adaptation to larval crowding in Drosophila spp. have all yielded the evolution of pre-adult competitive ability, even though the ecological context in which crowding was experienced varied across studies. However, the evolution of competitive ability was achieved through different suites of traits in studies wherein crowding was imposed in slightly different ways. Earlier studies showed the evolution of increased competitive ability via increased larval feeding rate and tolerance to nitrogenous waste, at the cost of food to biomass conversion efficiency. However, more recent studies, with crowding imposed at relatively low food levels, showed the evolution of competitive ability via decreased larval development time and body size, and an increase in the time efficiency of conversion of food to biomass, with no change in larval feeding rate or waste tolerance. Taken together, these studies have led to a more nuanced understanding of how the specific details of larval numbers, food amounts etc. can affect which traits evolve to confer increased competitive ability. Here, we report results from a study in which egg size and hatching time were assayed on three sets of populations adapted to larval crowding experienced in slightly different ways, as well as their low density ancestral control populations. Egg size and hatching time are traits that may provide larvae with initial advantages under crowding through increased starting larval size and a temporal head-start, respectively. In each set of populations adapted to some form of larval crowding, the evolution of longer and wider eggs was seen, compared to controls, thus making egg size the first consistent correlate of the evolution of increased larval competitive ability across Drosophila populations experiencing crowding in slightly different ways. Among the crowding-adapted populations, those crowded at the lowest overall eggs/food density, but the highest density of larvae in the feeding band, showed the largest eggs, on an average. All three sets of crowding-adapted populations showed shorter average egg hatching time than controls, but the difference was significant only in the case of populations experiencing the highest feeding band density. Our results underscore the importance of considering factors other than just eggs/food density when studying the evolution of competitive ability, as also the advantages of having multiple selection regimes within one experimental set up, allowing for a more nuanced understanding of the subtlety with which adaptive evolutionary trajectories can vary across even fairly similar selection regimes.