Developmental speed affects ecological stoichiometry and adult fat reserves in Drosophila melanogaster

Indrikis A. Krams (Corresponding Author), Ronalds Krams, Priit Jõers, Māris Munkevics, Giedrius Trakimas, Severi Luoto, Sarah Eichler, David M. Butler, Enno Merivee, Anne Must, Markus J. Rantala, Jorge Contreras-Garduño, Tatjana Krama

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

8 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The elemental composition of organisms belongs to a suite of functional traits that change during development in response to environmental conditions. However, associations between adaptive variations in developmental speed and elemental body composition are not well understood. We compared body mass, elemental body composition, food uptake and fat metabolism of Drosophila melanogaster male fruit flies in relation to their larval development speed. Slowly developing flies had higher body carbon concentration than rapidly developing and intermediate flies. Rapidly developing flies had the highest body nitrogen concentration, while slowly developing flies had higher body nitrogen levels than flies with intermediate speed of development. The carbon-to-nitrogen ratio was therefore lower in rapidly developing flies than in slow and intermediate flies. We also had a group of flies grown individually and their body mass and elemental body composition were similar to those of rapidly developing individuals grown in groups. This suggests that rapid growth is not suppressed by stress. Feeding rates were lowest in the slowly developing flies. The amount of triacylglycerides was highest in the flies with intermediate developmental speed which optimizes development under many climatic conditions. Although low food intake slows down developmental speed and the accumulation of body fat reserves in slowly developing flies, their phenotype conceivably facilitates survival under higher stochasticity of their environments. Rapidly developing flies grew with less emphasis on storage buildup. Overall, this study shoes that a combination of bet-hedging, adaptive tracking and developmental plasticity enables fruit flies to respond adaptively to environmental uncertainty.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1-20
Number of pages20
JournalAnimal Biology
Volume71
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2020
Externally publishedYes

Keywords*

  • Carbon-to-nitrogen ratio
  • Developmental speed
  • Drosophila melanogaster
  • Ecological stoichiometry
  • Larval development

Field of Science*

  • 1.5 Earth and related Environmental sciences
  • 1.6 Biological sciences

Publication Type*

  • 1.1. Scientific article indexed in Web of Science and/or Scopus database

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Developmental speed affects ecological stoichiometry and adult fat reserves in Drosophila melanogaster'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this