Laboratory and wild Drosophila sechellia have conserved niche specialization phenotypes
4 affiliations
- 1Center for Integrative Genomics, University of Lausanne 2 , Lausanne, Switzerland
- 2Department of Biology, Hofstra University 1 , Hempstead, NY, USA
- 3Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University 3 , Cambridge, MA, USA
- 4Howard Hughes Medical Institute 4 , Chevy Chase, MD, USA
Abstract
A major challenge to investigating the proximate causes of ecological adaptation is the difficulty of studying the phenotypes of organisms in their natural environments. By necessity, many studies seeking to determine the genetic and cellular basis of adaptation therefore investigate potentially adaptive phenotypes under laboratory conditions where organisms are more easily experimentally manipulated. For laboratory models, it remains unclear if organisms maintained long term under laboratory conditions are representative of relatives in their natural environment. In recent years, Drosophila sechellia , a specialist species endemic to the Seychelles, has emerged as a (neuro)genetic model for studying the molecular basis of ecological adaptation. A multitude of studies have investigated the genetic and cellular basis of various aspects of this species’ specialization in a laboratory setting. However, the vast majority of these studies use laboratory strains of D. sechellia that were collected many decades ago, and have been maintained under conditions very different from their natural niche. Thus, it remains unclear if and how these strains resemble their wild counterparts. Here, we compare the phenotypes of these laboratory strains with recently-collected wild D. sechellia to ask if laboratory strains display a loss or degradation of phenotypes potentially involved in their specialization resulting from their long-term laboratory maintenance. Across several behavioral and anatomical phenotypes, we find a high degree of similarity between wild-caught and laboratory-maintained strains. Our results suggest that studies of the molecular mechanisms underlying D. sechellia ’s phenotypes associated with specialization are likely representative of the evolution of these flies in the wild.
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BibTeX
@article{shahandeh2026laboratory,
title = {{Laboratory and wild Drosophila sechellia have conserved niche specialization phenotypes}},
author = {Michael P. Shahandeh and Liliane Abuin and Olakunle A. Jaiyesimi and Polpass Arul Jose and Suhrid Ghosh and Asfa Sabrin Borbora and Janpreet Kaur and Cassandra G. M. Extavour and Richard Benton},
journal = {Royal Society Open Science},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.1098/rsos.260680},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.260680},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Laboratory and wild Drosophila sechellia have conserved niche specialization phenotypes
AU - Michael P. Shahandeh
AU - Liliane Abuin
AU - Olakunle A. Jaiyesimi
AU - Polpass Arul Jose
AU - Suhrid Ghosh
AU - Asfa Sabrin Borbora
AU - Janpreet Kaur
AU - Cassandra G. M. Extavour
AU - Richard Benton
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/02
JO - Royal Society Open Science
DO - 10.1098/rsos.260680
UR - https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.260680
AB - A major challenge to investigating the proximate causes of ecological adaptation is the difficulty of studying the phenotypes of organisms in their natural environments. By necessity, many studies seeking to determine the genetic and cellular basis of adaptation therefore investigate potentially adaptive phenotypes under laboratory conditions where organisms are more easily experimentally manipulated. For laboratory models, it remains unclear if organisms maintained long term under laboratory conditions are representative of relatives in their natural environment. In recent years, Drosophila sechellia , a specialist species endemic to the Seychelles, has emerged as a (neuro)genetic model for studying the molecular basis of ecological adaptation. A multitude of studies have investigated the genetic and cellular basis of various aspects of this species’ specialization in a laboratory setting. However, the vast majority of these studies use laboratory strains of D. sechellia that were collected many decades ago, and have been maintained under conditions very different from their natural niche. Thus, it remains unclear if and how these strains resemble their wild counterparts. Here, we compare the phenotypes of these laboratory strains with recently-collected wild D. sechellia to ask if laboratory strains display a loss or degradation of phenotypes potentially involved in their specialization resulting from their long-term laboratory maintenance. Across several behavioral and anatomical phenotypes, we find a high degree of similarity between wild-caught and laboratory-maintained strains. Our results suggest that studies of the molecular mechanisms underlying D. sechellia ’s phenotypes associated with specialization are likely representative of the evolution of these flies in the wild.
SN - 2054-5703
ER -