Little effect of HSP90 inhibition on the quantitative wing traits variation in Drosophila melanogaster

• Published in: Genetica Vol. 145; no. 1; pp. 9 - 18
• Main Author: Takahashi, Kazuo H.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cham Springer International Publishing 01.02.2017; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Animal Genetics and Genomics; Animals; Benzoquinones - pharmacology; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Drosophila melanogaster; Drosophila melanogaster - drug effects; Drosophila melanogaster - genetics; Environmental effects; Evolutionary Biology; Female; Genetic Variation; Genotype; HSP90 Heat-Shock Proteins - antagonists & inhibitors; Human Genetics; Inheritance Patterns - drug effects; Lactams, Macrocyclic - pharmacology; Life Sciences; Male; Microbial Genetics and Genomics; Original Paper; Phenotype; Plant Genetics and Genomics; Quantitative Trait, Heritable; Wings, Animal - anatomy & histology; Geometric morphometrics; Cryptic genetic variation; Fluctuating asymmetry; Among-individual variation
• DOI: 10.1007/s10709-016-9940-z
• ISSN: 0016-6707

Drosophila wings have been a model system to study the effect of HSP90 on quantitative trait variation. The effect of HSP90 inhibition on environmental buffering of wing morphology varies among studies while the genetic buffering effect of it was examined in only one study and was not detected. Variable results so far might show that the genetic background influences the environmental and genetic buffering effect of HSP90. In the previous studies, the number of the genetic backgrounds used is limited. To examine the effect of HSP90 inhibition with a larger number of genetic backgrounds than the previous studies, 20 wild-type strains of Drosophila melanogaster were used in this study. Here I investigated the effect of HSP90 inhibition on the environmental buffering of wing shape and size by assessing within-individual and among-individual variations, and as a result, I found little or very weak effects on environmental and genetic buffering. The current results suggest that the role of HSP90 as a global regulator of environmental and genetic buffering is limited at least in quantitative traits.