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MBE Advance Access published online on June 27, 2003
Molecular Biology and Evolution, doi:10.1093/molbev/msg179
Molecular Biology and Evolution © Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution 2003; all rights reserved
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Accepted May 19, 2003
© 2003 Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution

Original Articles

Co-Variation of Larval Gene Expression and Adult Body Size in Natural Populations of Drosophila melanogaster

Zoltán Bochdanovits 1*, Herman van der Klis 1, and Gerdien de Jong 1

1 Evolutionary Population Biology Group, Utrecht University, Padualaan 8, 3584 CH Utrecht, the Netherlands

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: Z.Bochdanovits{at}bio.uu.nl.


  Abstract

Understanding adaptive phenotypic variation is one of the most fundamental problems in evolutionary biology. Genes involved in adaptation are most likely those that affect traits most intimately connected to fitness: life-history traits. The genetics of quantitative trait variation (including life histories) is still poorly understood, but several studies suggest that (1) quantitative variation might be the result of variation in gene expression, rather than protein evolution and (2) natural variation in gene expression underlies adaptation. The next step in studying the genetics of adaptive phenotypic variation is therefore an analysis of naturally occouring co-variation of global gene expression and a life-history trait. Here we report a microarray study addressing the co-variation in larval gene expression and adult body weight, a life history trait involved in adaptation. Natural populations of Drosophila melanogaster show adaptive geographic variation in adult body size (Noach et al. 1996; Robinson and Partridge 2001) with larger animals at higher latitudes. Conditions during larval development also affect adult size with larger flies emerging at lower temperatures. We found statistically significant differences in normalised larval gene expression between geographic populations at one temperature (genetic variation), and within geographic populations between temperatures (developmental plasticity). Moreover, larval gene expression correlated highly with adult weight, explaining 81% of its natural variation. Of the genes that show a correlation of gene expression with adult weight, most are involved in cell growth, cell maintenance or are associated with growth pathways.

Key Words: global gene expression, larval gene expression, adult body weight, quantitative trait evolution


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