Abstract
The unique geography of the Indian subcontinent has provided diverse natural environments for a variety of organisms. In this region, many ecological indices such as temperature and humidity vary predictably as a function of both latitude and altitude; these environmental parameters significantly affect fundamental dynamics of natural populations. Indian drosophilids are diverse in their geographic distribution and climate tolerance, possibly as a result of climatic adaptation. These associations with environmental parameters are further reflected in a large number of clines that have been reported for various fitness traits along these geographical ranges. This unique amalgamation of environmental variability and genetic diversity make the subcontinent an ecological laboratory for studying evolution in action. We assembled data collected over the last 20 years on the geographical clines for various phenotypic traits in several species of drosophilids and present a web-resource on Indian-Drosophila (http://www.indian-drosophila.org/). The clinal data on ecologically relevant phenotypes of Indian drosophilids will be useful in addressing questions related to future challenges in biodiversity and ecosystems in this region.
Highlights
Background & SummaryDrosophilid flies are classical models for population genetic and evolutionary ecology studies[1,2,3]
Drosophilids as a broader taxonomic group are very diverse in subtropical India, with 25 genera and over 287 species identified to date[4,5,6]
As in several other taxonomic groups, the genus Drosophila is speciesrich in India, presumably due to the extensive heterogeneity in ecological conditions
Summary
Drosophilid flies are classical models for population genetic and evolutionary ecology studies[1,2,3]. Phenotypic and genetic clines in various drosophilid species on the Indian subcontinent have been well documented[7,8] These studies have primarily examined latitudinal and/or altitudinal variation among populations in traits measured under common garden conditions. The environmental gradients present on the Indian subcontinent, in conjunction with the observed phenotypic and genetic clines, sets a platform for studies of local adaptation to natural variation in environmental conditions. These are the ideal places to investigate adaptive dynamics of fitness-associated traits[8]. In the present format of the resource a user-friendly application named DrosoCline has been incorporated for data visualization purposes
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