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Metabolic and functional characterization of effects of developmental temperature in Drosophila melanogaster

Schou, Mads F LU ; Kristensen, Torsten N ; Pedersen, Anders ; Karlsson, B. Göran LU ; Loeschcke, V. and Malmendal, Anders LU (2017) In American Journal of Physiology - Regulatory Integrative and Comparative Physiology 312. p.211-222
Abstract
The ability of ectotherms to respond to changes in their thermal environment through plastic mechanisms is central to their adaptive capability. However, we still lack knowledge on the physiological and functional responses by which ectotherms acclimate to temperatures during development, and in particular, how physiological stress at extreme temperatures may counteract beneficial acclimation responses at benign temperatures. We exposed Drosophila melanogaster to 10 developmental temperatures covering their entire permissible temperature range. We obtained metabolic profiles and reaction norms for several functional traits: egg-to-adult viability, developmental time, and heat and cold tolerance. Females were more heat tolerant than males,... (More)
The ability of ectotherms to respond to changes in their thermal environment through plastic mechanisms is central to their adaptive capability. However, we still lack knowledge on the physiological and functional responses by which ectotherms acclimate to temperatures during development, and in particular, how physiological stress at extreme temperatures may counteract beneficial acclimation responses at benign temperatures. We exposed Drosophila melanogaster to 10 developmental temperatures covering their entire permissible temperature range. We obtained metabolic profiles and reaction norms for several functional traits: egg-to-adult viability, developmental time, and heat and cold tolerance. Females were more heat tolerant than males, whereas no sexual dimorphism was found in cold tolerance. A group of metabolites, mainly free amino acids, had linear reaction norms. Several energy-carrying molecules, as well as some sugars, showed distinct inverted U-shaped norms of reaction across the thermal range, resulting in a positive correlation between metabolite intensities and egg-to-adult viability. At extreme temperatures, low levels of these metabolites were interpreted as a response characteristic of costs of homeostatic perturbations. Our results provide novel insights into a range of metabolites reported to be central for the acclimation response and suggest several new candidate metabolites. Low and high temperatures result in different adaptive physiological responses, but they also have commonalities likely to be a result of the failure to compensate for the physiological stress. We suggest that the regulation of metabolites that are tightly connected to the performance curve is important for the ability of ectotherms to cope with variation in temperature. (Less)
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author
; ; ; ; and
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
nuclear magnetic resonance metabolomics, developmental acclimation, environmental stress, extreme temperatures, plastic responses, sexual dimorphism, thermal performance curve, thermal resistance
in
American Journal of Physiology - Regulatory Integrative and Comparative Physiology
volume
312
pages
211 - 222
publisher
American Physiological Society
external identifiers
  • pmid:27927623
  • scopus:85011416544
ISSN
0363-6119
DOI
10.1152/ajpregu.00268.2016
language
English
LU publication?
no
id
aa751d47-617a-40b2-bbb6-a58acbf410d2
date added to LUP
2017-12-18 09:42:10
date last changed
2022-04-25 04:34:57
@article{aa751d47-617a-40b2-bbb6-a58acbf410d2,
  abstract     = {{The ability of ectotherms to respond to changes in their thermal environment through plastic mechanisms is central to their adaptive capability. However, we still lack knowledge on the physiological and functional responses by which ectotherms acclimate to temperatures during development, and in particular, how physiological stress at extreme temperatures may counteract beneficial acclimation responses at benign temperatures. We exposed Drosophila melanogaster to 10 developmental temperatures covering their entire permissible temperature range. We obtained metabolic profiles and reaction norms for several functional traits: egg-to-adult viability, developmental time, and heat and cold tolerance. Females were more heat tolerant than males, whereas no sexual dimorphism was found in cold tolerance. A group of metabolites, mainly free amino acids, had linear reaction norms. Several energy-carrying molecules, as well as some sugars, showed distinct inverted U-shaped norms of reaction across the thermal range, resulting in a positive correlation between metabolite intensities and egg-to-adult viability. At extreme temperatures, low levels of these metabolites were interpreted as a response characteristic of costs of homeostatic perturbations. Our results provide novel insights into a range of metabolites reported to be central for the acclimation response and suggest several new candidate metabolites. Low and high temperatures result in different adaptive physiological responses, but they also have commonalities likely to be a result of the failure to compensate for the physiological stress. We suggest that the regulation of metabolites that are tightly connected to the performance curve is important for the ability of ectotherms to cope with variation in temperature.}},
  author       = {{Schou, Mads F and Kristensen, Torsten N and Pedersen, Anders and Karlsson, B. Göran and Loeschcke, V. and Malmendal, Anders}},
  issn         = {{0363-6119}},
  keywords     = {{nuclear magnetic resonance metabolomics; developmental acclimation; environmental stress; extreme temperatures; plastic responses; sexual dimorphism; thermal performance curve; thermal resistance}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  pages        = {{211--222}},
  publisher    = {{American Physiological Society}},
  series       = {{American Journal of Physiology - Regulatory Integrative and Comparative Physiology}},
  title        = {{Metabolic and functional characterization of effects of developmental temperature in Drosophila melanogaster}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1152/ajpregu.00268.2016}},
  doi          = {{10.1152/ajpregu.00268.2016}},
  volume       = {{312}},
  year         = {{2017}},
}