Transgenerational effect of adult density through paternal effect in Drosophila melanogaster

• Published in: bioRxiv
• Main Authors: Dasgupta, Purbasha, Sarkar, Saubhik, Das, Akankshya A, Verma, Tanya, Nandy, Bodhisatta
• Format: Paper
• Language: English
• Published: Cold Spring Harbor Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press 13.07.2018
• Subjects: Eclosion; Eggs; Insects; Latency; Mating; Reproductive fitness; Variation
• DOI: 10.1101/368613

Notwithstanding recent evidences, paternal environment is thought to be a potential but unlikely source of fitness variation that can affect trait evolution. Here we studied transgenerational effect(s) of males' exposure to varying adult density in Drosophila melanogaster laboratory populations. We held sires at normal (N), medium (M) and high (H) adult densities for two days, before allowing them to mate with virgin females. We then collected eggs from the dams and measured the egg size. Finally we investigated the effect of the paternal treatment on juvenile and adult (male) fitness components. We found a significant treatment effect on juvenile competitive ability where the progeny sired by the H-males had higher competitive ability. Since we did not find the treatment to affect egg size, this effect is unlikely to be mediated through variation in female provisioning. Male fitness components were also found to have a significant treatment effect: M-sons had lower dry weight at eclosion, higher mating latency and lower competitive mating success. While being the first study to show both adaptive and non-adaptive effect of the paternal density in Drosophila, our results highlight the importance of considering paternal environment as important source of fitness variation.