Open AccessAdaptation to larval malnutrition does not affect fluctuating asymmetry in Drosophila melanogaster
Author(s) -
VIJENDRAVARMA ROSHAN K.,
NARASIMHA SUNITHA,
KAWECKI TADEUSZ J.
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
biological journal of the linnean society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.906
H-Index - 112
eISSN - 1095-8312
pISSN - 0024-4066
DOI - 10.1111/j.1095-8312.2011.01697.x
Subject(s) - fluctuating asymmetry , biology , drosophila melanogaster , adaptation (eye) , larva , wing , experimental evolution , drosophila (subgenus) , malnutrition , evolutionary biology , selection (genetic algorithm) , asymmetry , organism , melanogaster , zoology , ecology , genetics , neuroscience , gene , physics , quantum mechanics , artificial intelligence , economic growth , computer science , engineering , economics , aerospace engineering
Both stress during development and response to directional selection were proposed to lead to reduced developmental stability of an organism, commonly measured as fluctuating asymmetry. Here, we investigated the direct physiological (plastic) effect of larval malnutrition and the effect of evolutionary adaptation to this form of stress on developmental stability, measured as fluctuating asymmetry of several wing measurements. The measurements were made on female Drosophila melanogaster from populations which, in the course of 84 generations of experimental evolution, adapted to malnutrition and from non‐adapted controls, raised either under standard conditions or under nutritional stress. We detected no changes in the levels of fluctuating asymmetry as either a plastic or an evolutionary response. Thus, neither nutritional stress within lifetime nor directional selection it imposes seems to affect developmental stability in flies. © 2011 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society , 2011, 104 , 19–28.