BioProject

A study evaluating the effect of stress resistance selection of Drosophila melanogaster. More...

A study evaluating the effect of stress resistance selection of Drosophila melanogaster. Abstract Here, we report a detailed analysis of changes in gene expression in Drosophila melanogaster selected for multiple eological relevant environmental stress resistance traits. We analyzed females from three biological replicates from seven selection regimes and one control regime using whole genome gene expression arrays. Replicated selection lines were selected for resistance to acute heat survival, high temperature knock down, constant 30°C during development, cold shock survival, desiccation and starvation, respectively. Additionally, a set of replicated lines was selected for increased longevity. When compared to gene expression profiles of control lines, we were able to detect consistent selection responses at the transcript level in each specific selection regime and also found a group of differentially expressed genes that were generally changed among all selected lines. Replicated selection lines clustered together, i.e. showed similar changes in gene expression (compared to controls) and thus showed that 10 generations of artificial selection gives a clear signal among gene expression profiles. The changes in gene expression in lines selected for increased longevity, desiccation and starvation resistance, respectively, showed high similarities. Cold resistance selected lines showed little differentiation from controls. Different methods of heat selection (heat survival, heat knock down and constant 30°C) showed little similarity verifying that different mechanism are involved in high temperature adaptation. The direction of change in gene expression in the selected lines showed a consistent pattern for each selection regime. For most selection regimes and in the comparison of all selected lines and controls exclusively up- or down regulation of gene expression among significant differentially expressed genes was found. The different responses to selection expressed in individual selection regimes and among all selected lines indicate that we have identified genes involved in stress specific and general stress response mechanisms. Keywords: control versus selected Overall design: gene expression was measured in biological triplicates of control flies and flies selected for resistance to various stressors. Less...