Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-5nwft Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-04T04:52:12.362Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Impact of density and sex-dependent larval competition on selected life history traits of Drosophila melanogaster (Diptera: Drosophilidae)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 November 2017

Sohini Singha Roy ,
Gautam Aditya  and
Sujay Ghosh
Sohini Singha Roy
Affiliation:
Cytogenetics & Genomics Research Unit, Department of Zoology, University of Calcutta, 35 Ballygunge Circular Road,Kolkata 700019, India
Gautam Aditya
Affiliation:
Ecology Research Unit, Department of Zoology, University of Calcutta, 35 Ballygunge Circular Road, Kolkata 700019, India
Sujay Ghosh*
Affiliation:
Cytogenetics & Genomics Research Unit, Department of Zoology, University of Calcutta, 35 Ballygunge Circular Road,Kolkata 700019, India
*
1Corresponding author (e-mail: sgzoo@caluniv.ac.in)
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

An assessment of the effects of competitive behaviour and sex on seven selected life history traits of Drosophila melanogaster Meigen (Diptera: Drosophilidae) was made under precisely regulated larval density. Contrary to the conditions of crowding, as considered in many previous studies, the low scale of density enabled assessment of the life history traits at the individual level with higher precision and low variations. The 0-day-old first instars were reared with the relative density of 1,2, 3, and 4 individuals with optimal food until the adults emerged. The life history traits like age at pupation, age at eclosion, adult body weight, adult body length, wing length, and adult survival were used as response variables. Both the density and sex of the competitors were considered as predictors of the life history traits and a stronger effect was evident in the female sex than in males, which is statistically significant. Result also revealed the effect of competitive behaviour was more intense in case of same sex competitors than of opposite sex. In all instances, the life history traits exhibited a trend of decreasing function with the increasing larval rearing density, in compliance with the norms of density-dependent effects on development of Drosophila Fallén and similar insects.

Type
Behaviour & Ecology
Information
The Canadian Entomologist , Volume 150 , Issue 1 , February 2018 , pp. 87 - 99
Copyright
© Entomological Society of Canada 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

Subject editor: Justin Schmidt

References

Agnew, P., Haussy, C., and Michalakis, Y. 2000. Effects of density and larval competition on selected life history traits of Culex pipiens quinquefasciatus (Diptera: Culicidae). Journal of Medical Entomology, 37: 732–735.Google Scholar
Agnew, P., Hide, M., Sidobre, C., and Michalakis, Y. 2002. A minimalist approach to the effects of density-dependent competition on insect life-history traits. Ecological Entomology, 27: 396–402.Google Scholar
Anderson, W.W. 1971. Genetic equilibrium and population growth under density regulation. The American Naturalist, 105: 489–498.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ashburner, M. 1989. Drosophila: a laboratory manual. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, New York, New York, United States of America.Google Scholar
Atkinson, W.D. 1979. A field investigation of larval competition in domestic Drosophila . Journal of Animal Ecology, 48: 91–102.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berrigan, D. and Koella, J.C. 1994. The evolution of reaction norms: simple models for age and size at maturity. Journal of Evolutionary Biology, 7: 549–566.Google Scholar
Bierbaum, T.J., Mueller, L.D., and Ayala, F.J. 1989. Density-dependent evolution of life-history traits in Drosophila melanogaster . Evolution, 43: 382–392.Google Scholar
de Jong, G. 1976. A model of competition for food. I. Frequency-dependent viabilities. American Naturalist, 110: 1013–1027.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dey, S., Bose, J., and Joshi, A. 2012. Adaptation to larval crowding in Drosophila ananassae leads to the evolution of population stability. Ecology and Evolution, 2: 941–951.Google Scholar
Dey, S. and Joshi, A. 2006. Stability via asynchrony in Drosophila metapopulations with low migration rates. Science, 312: 434–436.Google Scholar
Grimaldi, D. and Jaenike, J. 1984. Competition in natural populations of mycophagous Drosophila . Ecology, 65: 1113–1120.Google Scholar
Hurlbert, S.H. 1984. Pseudoreplication and the design of ecological field experiments. Ecological Monographs, 54: 187–211.Google Scholar
Joshi, A. and Mueller, L.D. 1996. Density-dependent natural selection in Drosophila: trade-offs between larval food acquisition and utilization. Evolutionary Ecology, 10: 463–474.Google Scholar
Legendre, P. and Legendre, L. 1998. Numerical ecology. Second English edition. Elsevier Science, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.Google Scholar
Leroi, A.M., Bennett, A.E., and Lenski, R.E. 1994. Temperature acclimation and competitive fitness: an experimental test of the beneficial acclimation assumption. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 91: 1917–1921.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lewontin, R.C. 1965. Selection for colonizing ability. In The genetics of colonizing species. Edited by H.G. Baker and G.L. Stebbins. Academic Press, New York, New York, United States of America. Pp. 79–94.Google Scholar
MacArthur, R.H. 1962. Some generalized theorems of natural selection. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 48: 1893–1897.Google Scholar
MacArthur, R.H. and Wilson, E.O. 1967. The theory of island biogeography. Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, United States of America.Google Scholar
Manly, B.F.J. 1994. Multivariate statistical methods: a primer, 3rd edition, Chapman and Hall, New York, New York, United States of America.Google Scholar
Moya, A., Gonzalez-Candelas, F., and Meusua, J.L. 1988. Larval competition in Drosophila melanogaster: frequency dependence of viability. Theoretical and Applied Genetics, 75: 366–377.Google Scholar
Mueller, L.D. 1988. Density-dependent population growth and natural selection in food limited environments: the Drosophila model. American Naturalist, 132: 786–809.Google Scholar
Mueller, L.D. 1997. Theoretical and empirical examination of density-dependent selection. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics, 28: 269–288.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mueller, L.D., Graves, J.L., and Rose, M.R. 1993. Interactions between density-dependent and age-specific selection in Drosophila melanogaster . Functional Ecology, 7: 469–479.Google Scholar
Mueller, L.D., Guo, P., and Ayala, F.J. 1991. Density-dependent natural selection and trade-offs in life history traits. Science, 253: 433–435.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nagarajan, A., Natarajan, S.B., Jayaram, M., Thammanna, A., Chari, S., Bose, J., et al. 2016. Adaptation to larval crowding in Drosophila ananassae and Drosophila nasuta nasuta: increased larval competitive ability without increased larval feeding rate. Journal of Genetics, 95: 411–425.Google Scholar
Nicholson, A.J. 1957. The self-adjustment of populations to change. Cold Spring Harbor Symposium on Quantitative Biology, 22: 153–172.Google Scholar
Nunney, L. 1983. Sex differences in larval competition in Drosophila melanogaster: the testing of a competition model and its relevance to frequency dependent selection. American Naturalist, 121: 67–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Partridge, L. and Fowler, K. 1993. Responses and correlated responses to artificial selection on thorax length in Drosophila melanogaster . Evolution, 47: 213–226.Google Scholar
Pianka, E.R. 1970. On r- and k-selection. The American Naturalist, 104: 952–956.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Prasad, N.G., Shakarad, M., Anitha, D., Rajamani, M., and Joshi, A. 2001. Correlated responses to selection for faster development and early reproduction in Drosophila: the evolution of larval traits. Evolution, 55: 1363–1372.Google Scholar
Reisen, W.K., Milby, M.M., and Bock, M.E. 1984. The effects of immature stress on selected events in the life history of Culex tarsalis . Mosquito News, 44: 385–395.Google Scholar
Roper, C., Pignatelli, P., and Partridge, L. 1996. Evolutionary response of Drosophila melanogaster life history to differences in larval density. Journal of Evolutionary Biology, 9: 609–622.Google Scholar
Santos, M., Borash, D.J., Joshi, A., Bounlutay, N., and Mueller, L.D. 1997. Density-dependent natural selection in Drosophila: evolution of growth rate and body size. Evolution, 51: 420–432.Google Scholar
Santos, M., Fowler, K., and Partridge, L. 1992. On the use of tester stocks to predict the competitive ability of genotypes. Heredity, 69: 486–495.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Santos, M., Fowler, K., and Partridge, L. 1994. Gene-environment interaction for body size and larval density in Drosophila melanogaster: an investigation of effectson development time, thorax length and adult sex ratio. Heredity, 72: 515–521.Google Scholar
Shakarad, M., Prasad, N.G., Gokhale, K., Gadagkar, V., Rajamani, M., and Joshi, A. 2005. Faster development does not lead to correlated evolution of greater pre-adult competitive ability in Drosophila melanogaster . Biology Letters, 1: 91–94.Google Scholar
Sisodia, S. and Singh, B.N. 2002. Effect of temperature on longevity and productivity in Drosophila ananassae: evidence for adaptive plasticity and trade-off between longevity and productivity. Genetica, 114: 95–102.Google Scholar
Sisodia, S. and Singh, B.N. 2009. Variations in morphological and life-history traits under extreme temperatures in Drosophila ananassae . Journal of Biosciences, 34: 263–274.Google Scholar
Sokolowski, M.B., Pereira, H.S., and Hughes, K. 1997. Evolution of foraging behavior in Drosophila by density-dependent selection. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 94: 7373–7377.Google Scholar
Stearns, S.C. and Koella, J.C. 1986. The evolution of phenotypic plasticity in life-history traits: predictions of reaction norms for age and size at maturity. Evolution, 40: 893–913.Google Scholar
Travis, J. and Mueller, L.D. 1989. Blending ecology and genetics: progress towards unified population biology. In Perspectives in theoretical ecology. Edited by J. Roughgarden, R.M. May, and S. Levin. Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, United States of America. Pp. 101–124.Google Scholar
Wilkinson, G.S. 1987. Equilibrium analysis of sexual selection in Drosophila melanogaster . Evolution, 41: 11–21.Google Scholar
Yadav, J.P. and Singh, B.N. 2007. Evolutionary genetics of Drosophila ananassae: evidence for trade-offs among several fitness traits. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 90: 669–685.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zar, J.H. 1999. Biostatistical analysis, 4th edition, Pearson Education, Indian Branch, New Delhi, India.Google Scholar