Pupal emergence pattern in cactophilic Drosophila and the effect of host plants

Abstract

Drosophila buzzatii and D. koepferae are sibling cactophilic species. The former breeds primarily on prickly pears (genus Opuntia) whereas the latter breeds on columnar cacti of the genera Cereus and Trichocereus, although with certain degree of niche overlapping. We examined the interspecific differences in diurnal temporal patterns of adult emergence from puparia and evaluated whether this behavior is affected by rearing in the different cactus hosts available in nature. We detected important host-dependent genetic variation for this trait differentially affecting the emergence schedule of these species. Diurnal pattern of emergence time was directly correlated with developmental time and negatively correlated with adult wing size, suggesting that early emergences are at least indirectly correlated with increased fitness. We discussed our results in terms of their putative effects on fitness and the genetic-metabolic pathways that would be presumably affected by host's nutritional-chemical differences.

Developmental timing of Drosophila pachea pupae is robust to temperature changes

“…This variation could potentially depend on individual differences or on environmental factors that we could not control, such as the light/dark illumination cycle at the moment of adult emergence. Such circadian regulation of adult emergence has been observed in various Drosophila species (Ashburner et al, 2004;Mark et al, 2021;Powsner, 1935;Soto et al, 2018). However, the important variation in the last pupal stage is also found among individuals of the same cohort (Dataset S3 and S4).…”

Developmental timing ofDrosophila pacheapupae is robust to temperature changes

“…This variation could potentially depend on individual differences or on environmental factors that we could not control, such as the light/dark illumination cycle at the moment of adult emergence. Such circadian regulation of adult emergence has been observed in various Drosophila species (Ashburner et al, 2004; Mark et al, 2021; Powsner, 1935; Soto et al, 2018). However, the important variation in the last pupal stage is also found among individuals of the same cohort (Datasets S1 and S2).…”

P450 gene family mediates allelochemical detoxification and tolerance to alkaloids in cactophilic Drosophila

“…However, correlation analyses recently performed between both traits in D. buzzatii and D. koepferae showed an association that may change with the environment. In particular, the association between traits did not vary with the rearing medium in D. buzzatii , although it was significant in D. koepferae only when flies were raised in Opuntia sulphurea G Don ex Salm‐Dyck (i.e., it was not significant when they were raised in T. terscheckii ; Soto et al, 2018). Even though the number of replicates in this study is insufficient to perform reliable correlation analyses, we also observed that viability and DT changed jointly in D. buzzatii when the P450 enzymatic activity was inhibited with PBO, whereas they changed more independently in D. koepferae .…”