Post‐eclosion temperature effects on insect cuticular hydrocarbon profiles

• Published in: Ecology and evolution Vol. 11; no. 1; pp. 352 - 364
• Main Authors: Rajpurohit, Subhash, Vrkoslav, Vladimír, Hanus, Robert, Gibbs, Allen G., Cvačka, Josef, Schmidt, Paul S
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England John Wiley & Sons, Inc 01-01-2021; John Wiley and Sons Inc; Wiley
• Subjects: Cuticles; Cuticular hydrocarbons; Desiccation; desiccation tolerance; Drosophila melanogaster; Eclosion; Epicuticle; Fruit flies; Homeostasis; Hydrocarbons; Insects; Natural populations; Original Research; phenotypic plasticity; Plastic properties; Plasticity; Population; Populations; Principal components analysis; Temperature effects; Water loss; water loss rate; United States > US; water loss rate; cuticular hydrocarbons; natural populations; phenotypic plasticity; desiccation tolerance; eclosion; Drosophila melanogaster
• ISSN: 2045-7758; 2045-7758
• DOI: 10.1002/ece3.7050

The insect cuticle is the interface between internal homeostasis and the often harsh external environment. Cuticular hydrocarbons (CHCs) are key constituents of this hard cuticle and are associated with a variety of functions including stress response and communication. CHC production and deposition on the insect cuticle vary among natural populations and are affected by developmental temperature; however, little is known about CHC plasticity in response to the environment experienced following eclosion, during which time the insect cuticle undergoes several crucial changes. We targeted this crucial to important phase and studied post‐eclosion temperature effects on CHC profiles in two natural populations of Drosophila melanogaster. A forty‐eight hour post‐eclosion exposure to three different temperatures (18, 25, and 30°C) significantly affected CHCs in both ancestral African and more recently derived North American populations of D. melanogaster. A clear shift from shorter to longer CHCs chain length was observed with increasing temperature, and the effects of post‐eclosion temperature varied across populations and between sexes. The quantitative differences in CHCs were associated with variation in desiccation tolerance among populations. Surprisingly, we did not detect any significant differences in water loss rate between African and North American populations. Overall, our results demonstrate strong genetic and plasticity effects in CHC profiles in response to environmental temperatures experienced at the adult stage as well as associations with desiccation tolerance, which is crucial in understanding holometabolan responses to stress.
This work compares cuticular hydrocarbon profiles of ancestral African D. melanogaster populations with North American D. melanogaster populations. We report huge differences in cuticular hydrocarbon profiles between ancestral and recently migrated (within 300 years) populations of D. melanogaster. We employ various temperature manipulation approaches to understand cuticular hydrocarbons fate. Later, we try to understand cuticular hydrocarbons role in physiological processes, that is, desiccation tolerance/water loss rates.