EVOLUTION. Fruit flies diversify their offspring in response to parasite infection.
The evolution of sexual reproduction is often explained by Red Queen dynamics: Organisms must continually evolve to maintain fitness relative to interacting organisms, such as parasites. Recombination accompanies sexual reproduction and helps diversify an organism's offspring, so that parasites cannot exploit static host genotypes. Here we show that Drosophila melanogaster plastically increases the production of recombinant offspring after infection. The response is consistent across genetic backgrounds, developmental stages, and parasite types but is not induced after sterile wounding. Furthermore, the response appears to be driven by transmission distortion rather than increased recombination. Our study extends the Red Queen model to include the increased production of recombinant offspring and uncovers a remarkable ability of hosts to actively distort their recombination fraction in rapid response to environmental cues.
Department of Biological Sciences and Bioinformatics Research Center, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA. ndsingh@ncsu.edu schlenkt@reed.edu.
Nadia D
ND
Singh
Translational Biology and Molecular Medicine Program, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA.
Dallas R
DR
Criscoe
Department of Biology, Reed College, Portland, OR, USA.
Shelly
S
Skolfield
Department of Biology, Winthrop University, Rock Hill, SC, USA.
Kathryn P
KP
Kohl
Department of Biology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA.
Erin S
ES
Keebaugh
Department of Biology, Reed College, Portland, OR, USA. ndsingh@ncsu.edu schlenkt@reed.edu.
Todd A
TA
Schlenke
D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster / Q000235:genetics* / Q000254:growth & development / Q000469:parasitology*; D005260:Female; D056084:Genetic Fitness; D014644:Genetic Variation; D007814:Larva; D008297:Male; D009154:Mutation; D010272:Parasitic Diseases / Q000235:genetics; D011995:Recombination, Genetic; D012098:Reproduction / Q000235:genetics