| Summary: | Understanding the basis of local adaptation has been one of the most challenging problems of life sciences. Here, an effort was made to try to better understand the molecular mechanism implicated in the heat resistance of the cosmopolitan fly, Drosophila melanogaster. By phenotyping 168 strains, from nine European populations of D. melanogaster it was possible to characterize local variation of the heat resistance phenotype. As well as correlate that variation with geographical gradients, such as latitude and longitude, and bioclimatic variables. However, males appear to be the only ones differentiating under a latitudinal cline in Europe. At the same time, both sexes seem to be under different selective forces, with males being influenced mainly by temperature, while females are under the combined effect of temperature and rainfall. By looking at SNPs in the 5’- non-coding regions of genes with high coefficients of correlation with latitude or longitude, it was possible to identify novel candidate genes to heat resistance, using RNAi strains to suppress gene expression. A protocol was established that successfully identifies genes with phenotypical impact, by looking at local variation.
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