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Natural adaptation to environmental stress via physiological clock‐regulation of stress resistance in Drosophila
Author(s) -
Sørensen Jesper Givskov,
Loeschcke Volker
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
ecology letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 6.852
H-Index - 265
eISSN - 1461-0248
pISSN - 1461-023X
DOI - 10.1046/j.1461-0248.2002.00296.x
Subject(s) - adaptation (eye) , biology , environmental stress , diel vertical migration , ecology , resistance (ecology) , drosophila (subgenus) , mechanism (biology) , evolutionary biology , genetics , neuroscience , gene , philosophy , epistemology
In the present study we describe a novel mechanism by which populations, in an interplay between physiology and behaviour, can evolve adaptation to environmental extremes. Comparing Drosophila populations from different climate zones, we found diel shifts in high temperature resistance after maintenance at 25 °C for several generations. Resistance changes that co‐occurred with field and laboratory activity of the populations are controlled by the physiological clock and appear to be a consequence of local adaptation to the thermal profiles of the environment of origin.