Antagonistic pleiotropy can promote adaptation to patchy environments*

Abstract

How do gene variants with opposing effects on fitness in juvenile and adult insects perform in different ecological settings? Marden et al. used alleles of two antagonistic genes involved in metabolism and oxygen sensing in the Glanville fritillary butterfly as a model to demonstrate how these genes can antagonistically affect larval development and the adaptation of adults to different landscapes. This paper provides a case study for understanding how antagonistic pleiotropy can contribute to species adaption in patchy environments.

Fitness costs associated with chlorantraniliprole resistance in Spodoptera frugiperda (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) strains with different genetic backgrounds

“…The identification of modifier genes is challenging since they can only be comprehended in a network context 54 . Pleiotropic effects associated with adaptation to a new environment, a field where an insecticide is constantly sprayed, for example, can be found in the literature 28,55–57 . However, pleiotropic effects are not always granted to resistance mutations, they may be a consequence of other natural occurring mutations whose frequency depends on the environment 58 .…”

“…54 Pleiotropic effects associated with adaptation to a new environment, a field where an insecticide is constantly sprayed, for example, can be found in the literature. 28,[55][56][57] However, pleiotropic effects are not always granted to resistance mutations, they may be a consequence of other natural occurring mutations whose frequency depends on the environment. 58 Results indicated that the fitness cost observed in the RR strain is not caused by pleiotropic effects of resistance genes, otherwise the Iso-RR strain would also present a fitness cost associated with diamides resistance.…”