Zeit: 07.02.08, 17.15 Uhr
The heat shock response and adaptation to environmental stress
We aim at studying adaptation to genetic and environmental stresses and its evolutionary implications with particular emphasis on thermal adaptation and the heat shock response. As model organism we use several species of Drosophila, generalists as well as specialists. To achieve our research goals, we study correlated responses in lines selected for resistance to various environmental stresses as heat, cold, starvation and desiccation as well as lines selected for increased lifespan. Results on the phenotypic level are related to results on the DNA level, studying gene regulation in the same stress selected lines using Affymetrix gene chips at different time points after being exposed to a heat or cold hardening treatment. To complement these expression studies and to assess the role of putative candidate genes we use knockout or mutant lines and do quantitative PCR. Further, we map quantitative trait loci (QTL) responsible for thermal stress resistance, study DNA sequence variation in candidate genes and the relation of candidate gene variation to variation in resistance traits in natural populations and selection lines. Finally, we use some of the same selection lines to study fitness in the wild using release-capture experiments to bridge the gap between laboratory experiments and studies of thermal adaptation in the wild.
