Is it too cold outside for fly angels?
Uddyalok Bangabash, Sarthak Grover, Aalhad Bhatt, Ashmeet Dosanjh, Dr N.G. Prasad
Title:
Abstract
(From the Ed Sheeran song- "The A team"- It's too cold
outside for angels to fly)
Cold snaps can cause extreme temperature changes in a
very short span of time. Such rapid changes in temperature
over a very short period can have major consequences for
fitness of organisms. This is especially true of ectothermic
poikilotherms such as insects. Studies show that such cold
snaps can induce sterility and/or mortality in insects. Pre-
exposing individuals to a slightly moderate temperature
before exposure to a cold shock can protect the individuals
from multiple negative effects of cold shock. This protective-
angel process is called Rapid Cold Hardening (RCH).
RCH is a type of acute phenotypic plastic response. Studies
argue that such kinds of plasticity should trade off with basal
thermal tolerance. However, so far people have only looked
at differences between species. Our system allows us to test
this hypothesis in an environment better controlled for
ancestry.
Using replicate populations of Drosophila melanogaster
selected for faster reproductive recovery post cold shock, we
conducted a study to see if basal tolerance indeed trades off
with plasticity.
We find that the picture is complicated with sex and
exposure specific effects.
Selection Regime
Freeze Shock BRB
(FSB)
Cold Shock at -5°C
every generation
Freeze Control
BRB BRB (FCB)
(Ancestor)
No Cold Shock
(Egg collection happens 36 hours after cold shock)
Methods
●
12 day old flies from both populations were shocked at
-5°C for different exposure times (1 hour, 1 hour 20 min,
1 hour 30 min, 1 hour 40 min).
●
RCH + Stress treatments were given a cold shock at
0°C for 2 hours before being subjected to the stress
regime described earlier.
●
10 flies were taken per vial and mortality was scored up
to the 48th hour after the stress.
●
Males and females were assessed separately.
●
This was repeated across replicate populations.
Results
• The female has to recover it's egg viabilty within 24
Analysis
(R package used- Lme4)
Discussion
Previous data shows that selection on this
population is primarily happening at the level of egg
viability. Post cold shock the egg viabilty crashes.
hrs of administration of the cold shock.
Our results show that post cold shock, reproductive
recovery can lead to resistance to lethal conditions.
Essentially, selection for non lethal stress response
leads to correlated higher survivorship under lethal
conditions.
Literature suggests that evolution of higher basal
cold tolerance may come at a cost of thermal
plasticity. the data for the females show that that is
not true for our system. under conditions where the
mortality of selected and controls is similar, the
benefit they gain from RCH is also similar, thus this
trade off is not apparent in our system.
References
Lee, Richard E., Cheng-ping Chen, and David L. Denlinger. "A
rapid cold-hardening process in insects." Science 238.4832 (1987):
1415-1417.
Nyamukondiwa, Casper, et al. "Basal cold but not heat tolerance
constrains plasticity among Drosophila species (Diptera:
Drosophilidae)." Journal of evolutionary biology 24.9 (2011): 1927-
1938.
Basson, C. Helene, Casper Nyamukondiwa, and John S.
Terblanche. "Fitness costs of rapid cold‐hardening in Ceratitis
capitata." Evolution: International Journal of Organic Evolution 66.1
(2012): 296-304.
Singh, Karan, Ekta Kochar, and N. G. Prasad. "Egg viability, mating
frequency and male mating ability evolve in populations of
Drosophila melanogaster selected for resistance to cold shock."
PloS one 10.6 (2015): e0129992.
Stillman, Jonathon H. "Acclimation capacity underlies susceptibility
to climate change." Science 301.5629 (2003): 65-65.
Acknowledgements
We thank Aarohi and Vineet for their contributions to this
project