How does ageing affect life history traits and cold tolerance in summer- vs winter-acclimated invasive fruit flies?
Data files
Feb 26, 2025 version files 60.93 MB
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Ageing_fecundity.csv
60.82 MB
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Ageing_starvation_resistance.csv
47.06 KB
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CCRT_ageing.csv
24 KB
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CTmin_ageing.csv
38.58 KB
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README.md
1.58 KB
Abstract
All species exhibit functional senescence, a process related to ageing that is influenced by both abiotic and biotic factors. Ageing leads to a decline in function and drives phenotypic senescence, marked by a reduction in phenotypic performance over time. In temperate regions, overwintering species must survive and age for several months often facing challenging conditions with low food availability and chilling injuries. Yet, overwintering species might enter a state of dormancy, which, can extend longevity and enhance stress tolerance. Evaluating the performance of the overwintering survivors is crucial for predicting the population dynamics, especially for significant pests like invasive fruit flies. At the end of winter, the surviving fly populations, which are expected to rebuild new generations, are likely in a dormant state (i.e., reproductive quiescence) and, are likely senescent. However, their performance has not been thoroughly described. This study aims to decipher the effect of ageing on stress tolerance and reproductive capacity in both males and females of summer-acclimated (SP) vs. winter-acclimated (WP) phenotypes of D. suzukii. SP and WP flies were reared under normal and low temperature conditions, respectively, and four age categories were established: very young, young, middle, and old. SP flies, showed the typical marked age-related decline in stress tolerance and fecundity. In contrast, the cold-acclimated and likely dormant WP flies maintained high stress tolerance and exhibited lower but stable reproductive potential, despite ageing for months at low temperatures. Our study highlights the importance of distinguishing between overwintering and summer phenotypes, as ageing differentially affects both.
https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.m37pvmdcs
Description of the data and file structure
Files and variables
File: CTmin_ageing.csv
Description:
Variables
- Ctmin: values of minimum critical temperature in °C
- cdt: complete code of the sample
- morph: type of phenotypes
- age: age class of flies
- sex: male or female
File: Ageing_starvation_resistance.csv
Description:
Variables
- condition: complete code of the sample
- time: time to death
- status: 1 for dead
- morph: type of phenotype
- sex: male or female
- age: age class of flies
File: Ageing_fecundity.csv
Description:
Variables
- days: age of females when they start ovipositing
- day_end: age of females when they stop ovipositing
- age: age class of flies
- mix: description of the cross
- cross: phenotype of flies (winter-acclimated phenotype: WM or summer-acclimated phenotype: CT), sex (female: F and male: M) ,and age class (5: young, 15 & 30: middle, 45 & 90: old)
- replicate: replicate number
- alive: number of alive females in the replicate
- total_adults: number of emerged offspring from the replicate
File: CCRT_ageing.csv
Description:
Variables
- time: time to recover (fly stands up)
- status: 1 for recovered and 0 for dead
- condition: complete code for the sample
- morph: type of phenotype
- age: age class of flies
- sex: male or female
