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Experimental Evolution of Alkaloid Tolerance in Sibling Drosophila Species with Different Degrees of Specialization

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Abstract

Drosophila buzzatii and Drosophila koepferae are sibling species with marked ecological differences related to their patterns of host exploitation. D. buzzatii is a polyphagous species with a sub-cosmopolitan distribution, while D. koepferae is endemic to the mountain plateaus of the Andes, where it exploits alkaloidiferous columnar cacti as primary hosts. We use experimental evolution to study the phenotypic response of these cactophilic Drosophila when confronting directional selection to cactus chemical defenses for 20 generations. Flies adapted to cactus diets also experienced higher viability on alkaloid-enriched media, suggesting the selection of adaptive genetic variation for chemical-stress tolerance. The more generalist species D. buzzatii showed a rapid adaptive response to moderate levels of secondary metabolites, whereas the columnar cacti specialist D. koepferae tended to maximize fitness under harder conditions. The evolutionary dynamic of fitness-related traits suggested the implication of metabolic efficiency as a key mediator in the adaptive response to chemical stress. Although we found no evidence of adaptation costs accompanying specialization, our results suggest the involvement of compensatory evolution. Overall, our study proposes that differential adaptation to secondary metabolites may contribute to varying degrees of host specialization, favoring niche partitioning among these closely related species.

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Acknowledgements

We want to thanks to Pedro Fontanarrosa for assistance in running the experiments, and to Sergio Szajnman for invaluable technical support.

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  1. Julián Padró

    Present address: Ecotono Laboratory, INIBIOMA (CONICET-National University of Comahue), Quintral 1250, CP 8400, Bariloche, Argentina

  2. Juan Vrdoljak

    Present address: Instituto Patagónico para el Estudio de los Ecosistemas Continentales, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (IPEEC-CONICET), Boulevard Almirante Brown 2915, U9120ACD, Puerto Madryn, Chubut, Argentina

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto de Ecología, Genética y Evolución de Buenos Aires (IEGEBA – CONICET). DEGE, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Int. Guiraldes 2160, Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Julián Padró, Diego N. De Panis, Juan Vrdoljak, Pablo Milla Carmona, Betina Colines, Esteban Hasson & Ignacio M. Soto

  2. Laboratorio de Ecosistemas Marinos Fósiles, Instituto de Estudios Andinos Don Pablo Groeber (CONICET-UBA), Intendente Güiraldes 2160, Ciudad Universitaria (C1428 EHA), Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Pablo Milla Carmona

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Padró, J., De Panis, D.N., Vrdoljak, J. et al. Experimental Evolution of Alkaloid Tolerance in Sibling Drosophila Species with Different Degrees of Specialization. Evol Biol 45, 170–181 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11692-017-9441-8

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