Effect of cold stress on eggs of drosophila melanogaster

Abstract

Organisms face various types of environmental stress during their entire lifespan. Environmental stress acts as a significant ecological driver and plays an essential role in driving the evolution of populations in nature. The ability to resist temperature variation is a crucial fitness component in Drosophila melanogaster. Given that it is a costly trait, it certainly has a cost effect on other life-history traits. A previous study showed the impact on survivorship when cold shock was done at the egg stage of Drosophila melanogaster. Here the survivability decreases with the increase in stress. In this study, I have explored the effect of Cold shock on eggs of Drosophila melanogaster. Also, the impact of pre-treatment was observed in this project. It was found that survivability across life stages of flies and their body weight decreases with the stress. Also, the average development time of flies increased with the increase of stress. The data clearly showed the overall negative effect of pre- treatment.