Die genetischen Grundlagen thermischer Akklimatisation: Vom Phänotyp zum Genotyp

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Despite much recent progress in the general understanding of adaptation at the phenotypic level, our knowledge on the genetic mechanisms underlying adaptation, specifically how the genotype maps onto the adaptive phenotype, is still in its infancy. Amongst others due to anthropogenic global change understanding the mechanisms that underpin adaptive processes is of paramount importance. Against this background I will explore the genetic mechanisms underlying adaptive phenotypic plasticity in the tropical butterfly Bicyclus anynana. In this species phenotypic plasticity plays a crucial role for its adaptation to seasonal environments. Explicitly I will (1) investigate the phenotypic (fitness) effects of environmental manipulations, (2) analyze the whole-genome gene expression to uncover genes that are differentially expressed and thus underpin plastic responses, (3) verify the contribution of candidate genes selected from above through qPCR, and (4) investigate the contribution of selected key candidate genes to phenotypic variation by using natural allelic variation. The combination of techniques ranging from ecology to state-of-the-art molecular approaches and the use of ecologically relevant environmental factors in a species greatly relying on plastic responses are expected to generate important insights into the genetic mechanisms underlying adaptive processes.