We trace the evolutionary correlation between stress resistance and longevity in populations of Drosophila melanogaster selected for stress resistance over many generations. Females selected for desiccation resistance and both females and males selected for increasing starvation resistance initially show concurrent increases in longevity, but then begin to decrease in longevity, even as stress resistance continues to increase. We demonstrate that the correlation between two fitness traits can change and that this change is due to sustained selection rather than a genotype-by-environment interaction or inbreeding depression. The breakdown in evolutionary correlation we report underscores the difficulty of extrapolating the results from short-term selection experiments to predictions of long-term evolution.
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Evolution
Vol. 57 • No. 3
March 2003
Vol. 57 • No. 3
March 2003
antagonistic pleiotropy
evolutionary trajectories
Genetic correlations
Laboratory evolution
longevity
long-term selection
stress resistance