Thermal plasticity of stage-specific development time and adult body size under temperature shifts: A case study...

We examined how thermal shifts influence development time and adult body size in Drosophila melanogaster. Individual flies were exposed to alternating temperatures of 25 °C (optimal) and 17 °C (cold), with shifts introduced at key developmental transitions: larval hatching and pupariation. We found while larval-stage temperature is the biggest determinant of thermal plasticity of development time and adult size, the egg-stage temperature also influences the pace of development and growth throughout pre-adult duration. The effect of low-to-high and high-to-low temperature shifts on development and growth may not be symmetric. When eggs are reared at 25 °C and then shifted to 17 °C, larval and pupal durations undergo reduction compared to constant 17 °C, but it produces slightly larger adults. A higher egg-stage temperature thus seem to exert a carryover effect that accelerates subsequent development and growth when later stages experience colder temperatures. Surprisingly, flies whose egg stage is exposed to 17 °C followed by a shift to 25 °C also have reduced larval duration and larger size, relative to those developing at constant 25 °C. We speculate this could be either because 17 °C to 25 °C represents a low-to-high temperature shift or a sub-optimal-to-optimal thermal shift that results in metabolic and/or hormonal changes accelerating differentiation and growth. While pupal duration is sensitive to current and to some extent prior thermal environments, it does not contribute substantially to thermal plasticity of size. Development time is longer in males than in females, and this difference seems to start from larval stage while the pupal duration plays a bigger role in creating this sex-specific difference. Overall, employing individual fly rearing, this study helped to unravel the effect of thermal shifts on growth and development in D. melanogaster with great precision.