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Smaller beetles are better scramble competitors at cooler temperatures.

ABSTRACT: The role of temperature is central to both organic evolution and ecological processes. However, how temperature affects selection on body size is unknown. We tested whether small seed beetles (Stator limbatus) have an advantage over large beetles during scramble competition for mates, and whether this advantage varies with temperature. Within lines of beetles artificially selected to be large versus small, small males have a significant advantage over large males in scramble competition for females because the former takeoff more quickly and thus reach females before larger males. Selection favouring small male body size is significantly (and substantially) more intense at cooler temperatures. The adaptive significance of small male body size thus depends on ambient temperature.

SUBMITTER: Moya-Larano J

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2391194 | biostudies-literature | 2007 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Smaller beetles are better scramble competitors at cooler temperatures.

Moya-Laraño Jordi J El-Sayyid Maysaa El Tigani Mel T Fox Charles W CW

Biology letters 20071001 5

The role of temperature is central to both organic evolution and ecological processes. However, how temperature affects selection on body size is unknown. We tested whether small seed beetles (Stator limbatus) have an advantage over large beetles during scramble competition for mates, and whether this advantage varies with temperature. Within lines of beetles artificially selected to be large versus small, small males have a significant advantage over large males in scramble competition for fema ...[more]

PMID: 17638675

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Project description:BackgroundThe impact of global climate change on the transmission dynamics of infectious diseases is the subject of extensive debate. The transmission of mosquito-borne viral diseases is particularly complex, with climatic variables directly affecting many parameters associated with the prevalence of disease vectors. While evidence shows that warmer temperatures often decrease the extrinsic incubation period of an arthropod-borne virus (arbovirus), exposure to cooler temperatures often predisposes disease vector mosquitoes to higher infection rates. RNA interference (RNAi) pathways are essential to antiviral immunity in the mosquito; however, few experiments have explored the effects of temperature on the RNAi machinery.Methodology/principal findingsWe utilized transgenic "sensor" strains of Aedes aegypti to examine the role of temperature on RNA silencing. These "sensor" strains express EGFP only when RNAi is inhibited; for example, after knockdown of the effector proteins Dicer-2 (DCR-2) or Argonaute-2 (AGO-2). We observed an increase in EGFP expression in transgenic sensor mosquitoes reared at 18°C as compared with 28°C. Changes in expression were dependent on the presence of an inverted repeat with homology to a portion of the EGFP sequence, as transgenic strains lacking this sequence, the double stranded RNA (dsRNA) trigger for RNAi, showed no change in EGFP expression when reared at 18°C. Sequencing small RNAs in sensor mosquitoes reared at low temperature revealed normal processing of dsRNA substrates, suggesting the observed deficiency in RNAi occurs downstream of DCR-2. Rearing at cooler temperatures also predisposed mosquitoes to higher levels of infection with both chikungunya and yellow fever viruses.Conclusions/significanceThis data suggest that microclimates, such as those present in mosquito breeding sites, as well as more general climactic variables may influence the dynamics of mosquito-borne viral diseases by affecting the antiviral immunity of disease vectors.

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Smaller beetles are better scramble competitors at cooler temperatures.

Publications

Smaller beetles are better scramble competitors at cooler temperatures.

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