Fruit flies adapt to climate change through metabolic rewiring

The wellbeing and welfare of most animal and plant species depends strongly on the ambient temperature. The ongoing climate change is therefore a major challenge for many organisms, which must adapt to the changing temperatures or face the threat of extinction.

It has long been known that this adaption is controlled at the genetic level. What was not known is that this adaptation can happen quite fast, within just a few generations. Evidence of how quickly the genetic composition of populations can change has only been collected in recent years.

Yet the question remained unanswered whether only a few influential genes or many genes with small effect were responsible for this rapid change. Researchers at the Institute of Population Genetics at Vetmeduni Vienna including François Mallard and Christian Schlötterer experimentally tested the adaptation to novel thermal environments in the laboratory.

The researchers subjected freshly collected fruit flies to a hot environment and investigated the surviving animals after fewer than 60 generations. The results showed that the entire metabolism was rewired through just a few genetic variants.

Rapid adaptation possible, but only with sufficient genetic diversity

Several Nobel Prize-winning discoveries have helped to establish the fruit fly’s reputation among the general public as the animal of choice for genetic research. Yet its potential for environmental research was recognized only recently. The combination of ecology and genetics holds enormous, previously untapped, potential for understanding adaptation processes in the context of global climate change. The key to a successful adaptation strategy is a sufficiently large gene pool containing a “reserve” of genetic variants for new environmental conditions.

Mallard and his research colleagues were searching for the proverbial needle in a haystack. Using a so-called evolve-and-resequence study, they went about looking for those genetic variants among millions that would give the fruit flies a fitness advantage in a hot environment. The researchers conducted the experiments in the laboratory, “but the comparison of our results with natural populations from hot regions like Florida showed that the same adaptation mechanisms are also used in nature,” the first author explains.

Simple genetic basis triggers complex metabolic rewiring

In their analyses, the research team determined that the genetic adaptation had a direct effect on an essential metabolic regulator, an enzyme complex known as AMPK. However, the resulting metabolic rewiring was not triggered by many changes with small effect, as had been largely assumed, but by just a few influential genes.

“Not only among fruit flies does the enzyme complex play a central role in the metabolic process, in this case whether fat is stored or metabolized in a cell. Here AMPK ensures the right amount of ATP, an essential cellular energy source. “We were surprised that two of the strongest adaptation signals affected the genes Sestrin and SNF4Aγ, both of which interact with AMPK,” says Mallard. “But that explains how the flies are able to adapt so quickly to changing climatic conditions. We are currently investigation whether the same principles play a role in the adaptation to summer and autumn temperatures.”

Celebrating ten years of efficient and scientifically successful evolutionary research

The Institute of Population Genetics and the Population Genetic doctoral programme celebrated their 10th anniversary on 7 September 2018. More than 120 publications by PhD students in renowned academic journals, three ERC Awards, one FWF START Award and numerous other decorations provide impressive evidence of the fact that Vienna and the University of Veterinary Medicine have successfully established themselves as an internationally recognized centre of population genetic research. Every year, Vetmeduni Vienna receives countless applications from motivated graduate students attracted by the combination of mathematical modelling, bioinformatics and experimental genetics.

About the University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna
The University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna in Austria is one of the leading academic and research institutions in the field of Veterinary Sciences in Europe. About 1,300 employees and 2,300 students work on the campus in the north of Vienna which also houses five university clinics and various research sites. Outside of Vienna the university operates Teaching and Research Farms. The Vetmeduni Vienna plays in the global top league: in 2018, it occupies the excellent place 6 in the world-wide Shanghai University veterinary in the subject “Veterinary Science”. http://www.vetmeduni.ac.at

Released by:
Georg Mair
Science Communication / Corporate Communications
University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna (Vetmeduni Vienna)
T +43 1 25077-1165
georg.mair@vetmeduni.ac.at

Christian Schlötterer
Institute of Population Genetics
University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna (Vetmeduni Vienna)
T +43 1 25077-4300
christian.schloetterer@vetmeduni.ac.at

The article “A simple genetic basis of adaptation to a novel thermal environment results in complex metabolic rewiring in Drosophila“ by François Mallard, Viola Nolte, Ray Tobler, Martin Kapun and Christian Schlötterer was published in Genome Biology.
https://doi.org/10.1186/s13059-018-1503-4

https://www.vetmeduni.ac.at/en/infoservice/press-releases/presse-releases-2018/f…