TY - JOUR
T1 - Variability in thermal and phototactic preferences in Drosophila may reflect an adaptive bet-hedging strategy
AU - Kain, Jamey S.
AU - Zhang, Sarah
AU - Akhund-Zade, Jamilla
AU - Samuel, Aravinthan D.T.
AU - Klein, Mason
AU - de Bivort, Benjamin L.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2015, Society for the Study of Evolution.
Copyright:
Copyright 2018 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2015/12/1
Y1 - 2015/12/1
N2 - Organisms use various strategies to cope with fluctuating environmental conditions. In diversified bet-hedging, a single genotype exhibits phenotypic heterogeneity with the expectation that some individuals will survive transient selective pressures. To date, empirical evidence for bet-hedging is scarce. Here, we observe that individual Drosophila melanogaster flies exhibit striking variation in light- and temperature-preference behaviors. With a modeling approach that combines real world weather and climate data to simulate temperature preference-dependent survival and reproduction, we find that a bet-hedging strategy may underlie the observed interindividual behavioral diversity. Specifically, bet-hedging outcompetes strategies in which individual thermal preferences are heritable. Animals employing bet-hedging refrain from adapting to the coolness of spring with increased warm-seeking that inevitably becomes counterproductive in the hot summer. This strategy is particularly valuable when mean seasonal temperatures are typical, or when there is considerable fluctuation in temperature within the season. The model predicts, and we experimentally verify, that the behaviors of individual flies are not heritable. Finally, we model the effects of historical weather data, climate change, and geographic seasonal variation on the optimal strategies underlying behavioral variation between individuals, characterizing the regimes in which bet-hedging is advantageous.
AB - Organisms use various strategies to cope with fluctuating environmental conditions. In diversified bet-hedging, a single genotype exhibits phenotypic heterogeneity with the expectation that some individuals will survive transient selective pressures. To date, empirical evidence for bet-hedging is scarce. Here, we observe that individual Drosophila melanogaster flies exhibit striking variation in light- and temperature-preference behaviors. With a modeling approach that combines real world weather and climate data to simulate temperature preference-dependent survival and reproduction, we find that a bet-hedging strategy may underlie the observed interindividual behavioral diversity. Specifically, bet-hedging outcompetes strategies in which individual thermal preferences are heritable. Animals employing bet-hedging refrain from adapting to the coolness of spring with increased warm-seeking that inevitably becomes counterproductive in the hot summer. This strategy is particularly valuable when mean seasonal temperatures are typical, or when there is considerable fluctuation in temperature within the season. The model predicts, and we experimentally verify, that the behaviors of individual flies are not heritable. Finally, we model the effects of historical weather data, climate change, and geographic seasonal variation on the optimal strategies underlying behavioral variation between individuals, characterizing the regimes in which bet-hedging is advantageous.
KW - Evolutionary strategy
KW - Heritability
KW - Personality
KW - Phototaxis
KW - Thermotaxis
KW - Variation
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U2 - 10.1111/evo.12813
DO - 10.1111/evo.12813
M3 - Article
C2 - 26531165
AN - SCOPUS:84955201222
VL - 69
SP - 3171
EP - 3185
JO - Evolution; international journal of organic evolution
JF - Evolution; international journal of organic evolution
SN - 0014-3820
IS - 12
ER -