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THE REACTION NORM FOR ABDOMINAL PIGMENTATION AND ITS CURVE IN DROSOPHILA MEDIOPUNCTATA DEPEND ON THE MEAN PHENOTYPIC VALUE
Author(s) -
Rocha Felipe,
Medeiros Hermes F.,
Klaczko Louis Bernard
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
evolution
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.84
H-Index - 199
eISSN - 1558-5646
pISSN - 0014-3820
DOI - 10.1111/j.1558-5646.2008.00503.x
Subject(s) - biology , phenotype , trait , phenotypic plasticity , norm (philosophy) , evolutionary biology , genetics , statistics , gene , mathematics , computer science , political science , law , programming language
The idea of a general independence between the phenotypic plasticity and the mean value of a trait is, presently, a consensus. Here, we use the reaction norm of abdominal pigmentation (number of dark spots) of Drosophila mediopunctata in response to temperature, to test this idea. We raised eight strains, bearing two different chromosomal inversions and with varying mean phenotypic values, under 11 temperatures in a thermal gradient to test for predictions concerning mean phenotypic values, chromosomal inversions, and reaction norms. Our results revealed a strong effect of different phenotypic groups and no effect of different karyotypes on reaction norms. Moreover, we found a significant negative correlation between mean phenotypic value and the curvature of the reaction norms, revealing a high dependency of the reaction norm shape on mean phenotypic value. These results clearly reject the idea of genetic independence between mean value and phenotypic plasticity, and may indicate a pattern of correlation, which may include results from other traits and species, with an importance that has not been fully appreciated.