Generation of isofemale lines from hypoxia tolerant Drosophila melanogaster population

Abstract

Hypoxia is a common pathological element in many human diseases. Understanding the mechanisms that underlie hypoxia tolerance or susceptibility is essential for developing novel strategies for treatment or prevention. Through experimental evolution, we obtained a Drosophila melanogaster population that can live perpetually in severe, normally lethal, hypoxic environments. We generated a Panel of Low Oxygen Tolerant (PLOT) isofemale lines (total 79 lines) from this hypoxia tolerant population to study or identify the specific genetic mechanisms that are responsible for the hypoxia tolerant trait. These isofemale lines showed significantly higher hypoxia tolerance as compared to their wildtype parental isofemale lines and the wildtype DGRP (Drosophila melanogaster Genetic Reference Panel) isofemale lines. For example, 95% of the PLOT lines showed hypoxia tolerance with eclosion rate >50% at 5% O2 level. In contrast, none of the parental lines and only 15% of the DGRP lines had similar eclosion rates under the same hypoxic condition. Furthermore, under the lethal condition with 4% O2, our PLOT lines exhibited a wide range of eclosion rate from 1% to 80% with a clear pattern of Gaussian‐Distribution, demonstrating that these PLOT flies may provide us a unique opportunity to study the molecular basis of stress‐directed evolution, such as the role of genetic variations in the protein coding regions and functional DNA elements in hypoxia adaptation. These PLOT lines can also be used to study phenotypic plasticity as well as genetic‐epigenetic interactions in hypoxic, or other stressful, environments.