Biology subjects

Matos, M.

Publications and source records attributed to Matos, M..

9 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2025

RT-qPCR Validation of Candidate Genes Underlying Thermal Adaptation in Drosophila subobscura

Understanding the genetic basis of thermal adaptation is essential in the face of global climate change. In this study, we validate candidate genes implicated in thermal adaptation previously identified through RNA-seq analysis of Drosophila subobscura populations experimentally evolved under a progressive warming regime. Using RT-qPCR, we assessed the directionality of gene expression changes--up- or downregulation--across warming and control populations from two latitudinal origins. Out of 27 candidate gene tests, 33.3% showed consistent expression patterns between RNA-seq and RT-qPCR. Our results suggest that effect size, rather than expression level alone, is a key factor driving successful validation. This should be considered when interpreting whole-transcriptome data, which can yield many candidate genes. Future studies should examine how different log2 fold-change thresholds between populations relate to the success rate of validating RNA-seq differential expression results, in order to improve the reliability of candidate gene lists.

evolutionary biology↗

bioRxiv2025

Long-term laboratory Drosophila populations prefer ancestral nutritional cues from the environment

Plasticity can help populations cope with environmental changes namely by exploring different ecological niches. Addressing plasticity for nutritional responses in a range of fruit hosts potentially used by Drosophila may be essential in predicting the capacity of insects to colonize new environments or return to ancestral ones. Here we test for differences in oviposition performance, reproductive success and juvenile viability in different host fruits in the colonizing species Drosophila subobscura Collin, and compare them with those of the laboratory maintenance medium to which populations adapted for [~]150 generations. We question: does Drosophila subobscura show plasticity associated with different fruit hosts? Is performance better in the long-term maintenance (control) medium? We observed a higher fecundity, reproductive success and juvenile viability of flies maintained in the fruit media versus the control, but no differences between fruits. Our experiment shows that long-term lab populations of Drosophila subobscura can still assess environmental cues of new substrates allowing for flexible adaptive plasticity to occur through increased fecundity and reproductive success in fruit hosts relative to the control conditions. Importantly, this ability was not lost during long-term evolution in a benign, homogeneous environment. Furthermore, the high performance across fruits reinforces its status as a generalist species and further attests its potential to colonize different ecological settings.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2024

Monandrous flies do remate: plastic and evolutionary consequences of heat exposure on mating behaviour and fertility in Drosophila subobscura

Recent work has reinforced the importance of fertility in predicting population persistence under global warming, especially male fertility. However, most studies on mating and reproductive performance have used as model organism polyandrous species, remaining unclear if and how will monandrous species respond. This is unfortunate as one could expect monandrous species to be particularly susceptible, given their inability to use sperm from multiple males to prevent reduced progeny production due to male sterility. It could be that monandrous females can overcome this toll in fertility by plastically changing their mating rate, or that monandrous populations evolve the ability to remate upon repeated exposure to heat. To test this, we studied the real-time evolution as well as the thermal plastic response of two geographically distinct populations of the monandrous species Drosophila subobscura after 45 generations evolving under a warming scenario. We assessed the impact of heat on male mating behaviour and fertility, as well as the impact of reduced male fertility on female mating behaviour and fertility. We found that in males the toll in mating behaviour due to heat can be recovered with time, whereas that in reproductive success cannot. On the other hand, females exposed to heat-stressed males significantly increased their remating rate, allowing to recover considerably their own reproductive success. Interestingly, most responses were plastic, with no striking effect of adaptation to warming nor of geographical origin. Our work brings new insights into the effects of heat on monandrous species and establishes a model to study how a shift in mating system may affect species ability to respond to climate change.

evolutionary biology↗

bioRxiv2024

Long-term dynamics of adaptation to a warming environment is dependent on historical background

Global warming is leading to worldwide biodiversity decline at a fast pace. Evolutionary responses may be crucial in allowing organisms to cope with prolonged effects of climate change. This urges the need for a better understanding of the dynamics of adaptation to warming environments. In particular, addressing how reproductive success evolves in deteriorating environments is extremely relevant, as this trait is more likely constrained at lower temperatures than upper physiological thermal limits. Experimental evolution under a warming environment can elucidate the potential of populations to respond to rapid environmental changes. The few studies following such framework lack analysis of long-term response. We here focus on the long-term thermal evolution of two Drosophila subobscura populations, from different European latitudes, under warming temperatures. We estimated the reproductive success of these populations in two test environments: the ancestral (control) and the warming environment after 39 and 52 generations of thermal evolution. We found that a relevant long-term adaptive response to warming temperatures can occur, but the pace of such response is slow. In addition, we observed contrasting responses in the ancestral environmental and differences in the evolutionary dynamics between populations of distinct histories, with those originally from higher latitude only showing an adaptive response under the to the warming environment regime in at a later generation. This study reinforces the need for long-term evolution experiments to fully reveal the potential for thermal response. It also highlights that the scrutiny of several populations in this context is needed for a measure of variation within a species. Accounting for these sources of variation - both temporal and spatial - will allow for more robust assessments of climate change responses.

evolutionary biology↗

bioRxiv2022

Biogeographical history shapes evolution of reproduction in a global warming scenario

Adaptive evolution might be critical for animal populations to thrive on the fast-changing natural environments. Ectotherms are particularly vulnerable to global warming and, although their limited coping ability has been suggested, few real-time evolution experiments have directly accessed their evolutionary potential. Here, we report a long-term experimental evolution study addressing the evolution of thermal reaction norms, after [~]30 generations under different thermal environments. We analyzed the evolutionary dynamics of Drosophila subobscura populations as a function of the thermally variable environments in which they evolved and their distinct biogeographical background. Our results showed clear differences between the historically differentiated populations: while the northern D. subobscura populations showed a temporal increase in performance at higher temperatures, their southern counterparts presented the opposite pattern. This suggests that the northern populations might be better equipped to cope with the current rising temperatures. Remarkably, no effect of thermal selection was found. The lack of a clear long-term adaptive response at higher temperatures after evolution under a global warming scenario raises concerns about the evolutionary potential of ectotherms. Our results highlight the complex nature of thermal responses in face of environmental heterogeneity and emphasize the importance of considering intra-specific variation in thermal evolution studies.

evolutionary biology↗

bioRxiv2022

Microbes are potential key players in the evolution of life histories and aging in Caenorhabditis elegans

Microbes can have profound effects on host fitness and health and the appearance of late-onset diseases. Host-microbe interactions thus represent a major environmental context for healthy aging of the host and might also mediate trade-offs between life-history traits in the evolution of host senescence. Here, we have used the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans to study how host-microbe interactions may modulate the evolution of life histories and aging. We first characterized the effects of two non-pathogenic and one pathogenic Escherichia coli strains, together with the pathogenic Serratia marcescens DB11 strain, on population growth rates and survival of C. elegans from five different genetic backgrounds. We then focused on an outbred C. elegans population, to understand if microbe-specific effects on the reproductive schedule and in traits such as developmental rate and survival were also expressed in the presence of males and standing genetic variation, which could be relevant for the evolution of C. elegans and other nematode species in nature. Our results show that host-microbe interactions have a substantial host-genotype-dependent impact on the reproductive aging and survival of the nematode host. Although both pathogenic bacteria reduced host survival in comparison with benign strains, they differed in how they affected other host traits. Host fertility and population growth rate were affected by S. marcescens DB11 only during early adulthood, whereas this occurred at later ages with the pathogenic E. coli IAI1. In both cases, these effects were largely dependent on the host genotypes. Given such microbe-specific genotypic differences in host life history, we predict that the evolution of reproductive schedules and senescence might be critically contingent on host-microbe interactions in nature.

evolutionary biology↗

bioRxiv2021

No evidence for short-term evolutionary response to a warming environment in Drosophila

Adaptive evolution is key in mediating responses to climate change. Such evolution will expectedly lead to changes in the populations thermal reaction norm and improve their ability to cope with stressful conditions. Conversely, constraints of different nature might limit the adaptive response. Here, we test these expectations by performing a real-time evolution experiment in historically differentiated Drosophila subobscura populations. We address the phenotypic changes of flies evolving for nine generations in a daily fluctuating environment with average constant temperature, or a warming environment with increasing average and amplitude temperature across generations. Our results showed that (1) evolution under a global warming scenario has not led, so far, to a noticeable change in the thermal response; (2) historical background appears to be affecting the responses of populations under the warming environment, particularly at higher temperatures; (3) thermal reaction norms are trait-dependent: while lifelong exposure to low temperature decreases fecundity and productivity but not viability, high temperature causes negative transgenerational effects on productivity and viability, even though fecundity remains high. These findings raise concerns about the short-term efficiency of adaptive responses to the current changing climate.

evolutionary biology↗

bioRxiv2020

High developmental temperature leads to low reproduction despite adult temperature

Phenotypic plasticity can be an important tool in helping organisms to cope with changing thermal conditions and it may show an interdependency between life-stages. For instance, exposure to stressful temperatures during development can trigger a positive plastic response in adults. In this study, we analyse the thermal plastic response of laboratory populations of Drosophila subobscura, derived from two contrasting latitudes of the European cline. We measured fecundity characters in the experimental populations after exposure to five thermal treatments, with different combinations of developmental and adult temperatures (14{degrees}C, 18{degrees}C or 26{degrees}C). We ask whether (1) adult performance is enhanced (or reduced) by exposing flies to higher (or lower) temperatures during development only; (2) flies raised at lower temperatures outperform those developed at higher ones, supporting the "colder is better" hypothesis; (3) there is a cumulative effect on adult performance of exposing both juveniles and adults to higher (or lower) temperatures; (4) there is any evidence for historical effects on adult performance. Our main findings show that (1) higher developmental temperatures led to low reproductive performance regardless of adult temperature, while at lower temperatures reduced performance only occurred when cold conditions were persistent across juvenile and adult stage; (2) flies raised at lower temperatures did not always outperform those developed at other temperatures; (3) there was no (negative) cumulative effect of exposing both juveniles and adults to higher temperatures; (4) both latitudinal populations showed similar thermal plasticity patterns. The negative effect of high developmental temperature on reproductive performance, regardless of adult temperature, highlights the developmental stage as a critical and most vulnerable stage to climate change and associated heat waves.

evolutionary biology↗

bioRxiv2019

How phenotypic convergence arises in experimental evolution

Evolutionary convergence is a core issue in the study of adaptive evolution, as well as a highly debated topic at present. Few studies have analyzed this issue using a \"real-time\" or evolutionary trajectory approach. Do populations that are initially differentiated converge to a similar adaptive state when experiencing a common novel environment? Drosophila subobscura populations founded from different locations and years showed initial differences and variation in evolutionary rates in several traits during short-term ([~]20 generations) laboratory adaptation. Here we extend that analysis to 40 more generations to analyze (1) how differences in evolutionary dynamics between populations change between shorter and longer time spans, and (2) whether evolutionary convergence occurs after sixty generations of evolution in a common environment. We found substantial variation in longer-term evolutionary trajectories and differences between short and longer-term evolutionary dynamics. Though we observed pervasive patterns of convergence towards the character values of long-established populations, populations still remain differentiated for several traits at the final generations analyzed. This pattern might involve transient divergence, as we report in some cases, indicating that more generations should lead to final convergence. These findings highlight the importance of longer-term studies for understanding convergent evolution.

evolutionary biology↗