Desiccation resistance differences in Drosophila species can be largely explained by variations in cuticular hydrocarbons

  1. Zinan Wang  Is a corresponding author
  2. Joseph P Receveur
  3. Jian Pu
  4. Haosu Cong
  5. Cole Richards
  6. Muxuan Liang
  7. Henry Chung  Is a corresponding author
  1. Michigan State University, United States
  2. University of Florida, United States

Abstract

Maintaining water balance is a universal challenge for organisms living in terrestrial environments, especially for insects, which have essential roles in our ecosystem. Although the high surface area to volume ratio in insects makes them vulnerable to water loss, insects have evolved different levels of desiccation resistance to adapt to diverse environments. To withstand desiccation, insects use a lipid layer called cuticular hydrocarbons (CHCs) to reduce water evaporation from the body surface. It has long been hypothesized that the waterproofing capability of this CHC layer, which can confer different levels of desiccation resistance, depends on its chemical composition. However, it is unknown which CHC components are important contributors to desiccation resistance and how these components can determine differences in desiccation resistance. In this study, we used machine learning algorithms, correlation analyses, and synthetic CHCs to investigate how different CHC components affect desiccation resistance in 50 Drosophila and related species. We showed that desiccation resistance differences across these species can be largely explained by variation in CHC composition. In particular, length variation in a subset of CHCs, the methyl-branched CHCs (mbCHCs), is a key determinant of desiccation resistance. There is also a significant correlation between the evolution of longer mbCHCs and higher desiccation resistance in these species. Given that CHCs are almost ubiquitous in insects, we suggest that evolutionary changes in insect CHC components can be a general mechanism for the evolution of desiccation resistance and adaptation to diverse and changing environments.

Data availability

All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in the manuscript and supporting source data file. Code used is uploaded as source code 1-3.

Article and author information

Author details

  1. Zinan Wang

    Department of Entomology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, United States
    For correspondence
    wangzina@msu.edu
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-0509-4902
  2. Joseph P Receveur

    Department of Entomology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  3. Jian Pu

    Department of Entomology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  4. Haosu Cong

    Department of Entomology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  5. Cole Richards

    Department of Entomology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  6. Muxuan Liang

    Department of Biostatistics, University of Florida, Gainsville, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  7. Henry Chung

    Department of Entomology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, United States
    For correspondence
    hwchung@msu.edu
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0001-5056-2755

Funding

National Science Foundation (2054773)

  • Henry Chung

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.

Copyright

© 2022, Wang et al.

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.

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  1. Zinan Wang
  2. Joseph P Receveur
  3. Jian Pu
  4. Haosu Cong
  5. Cole Richards
  6. Muxuan Liang
  7. Henry Chung
(2022)
Desiccation resistance differences in Drosophila species can be largely explained by variations in cuticular hydrocarbons
eLife 11:e80859.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.80859

Share this article

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.80859

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