Faculty Collaboration Database

Chill-coma tolerance, a major climatic adaptation among Drosophila species. Evolution 2001 May;55(5):1063-8

Date

06/30/2001

Pubmed ID

11430643

DOI

10.1554/0014-3820(2001)055[1063:cctamc]2.0.co;2

Scopus ID

2-s2.0-0034977946 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site)   195 Citations

Abstract

Most drosophilid species can be classified either as temperate or tropical. Adults of species were submitted to a cold treatment (0 degrees C) and then brought back to ambient temperature. They generally exhibited a chill coma and the time needed to recover was measured. We found in a set of 26 temperate species that recovery was rapid (average 1.8 min, range 0.15-4.9). In contrast, a long recovery time (average 56 min, range 24-120) was observed for 48 tropical species. A few species, like Drosophila melanogaster, are cosmopolitan and can proliferate under temperate and tropical climates. In 9 of 10 such species, slight genetic differences were found: a shorter recovery in temperate than in tropical populations. Comparing physiological data to phylogeny suggests that chill-coma tolerance has been a recurrent adaptation that is selected for in cold climates but tends to disappear under a permanently warm environment. This major climatic adaptation, evidenced in drosophilids, seems to occur in other insect groups also.

Author List

Gibert P, Moreteau B, Pétavy G, Karan D, David JR

Author

Dev Karan PhD Associate Professor in the Pathology department at Medical College of Wisconsin

MESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold

Acclimatization
Animals
Biological Evolution
Cold Climate
Coma
Drosophila
Drosophila melanogaster
Phylogeny
Species Specificity
Time Factors
Tropical Climate