Organisms in nature experience daily and seasonal cycles of changes in humidity, temperature, and photoperiod. These climatic variations impact the demography of population and exert variable selection pressures over space and time. Insects create the biological foundations for all terrestrial ecosystems and are thus an ecological indicator of global climate changes. Noteworthy, ectothermic insects face major challenges in adapting to climate changes, thus there is growing interest in understanding the consequences of abiotic stresses in these insect populations. To understand these evolutionary and ecological relevant changes on ectothermic insects, it is pertinent to know how fast adaptive evolution of ecologically relevant traits occurs and to what role does phenotypic plasticity play in adaptations to geographical and seasonal changes.
Approaches to study how physiological processes evolve in nature include phylogenetic analysis of different geographical populations within a species, and field studies. By contrast, laboratory selection experiments can be used to understand possible mechanisms underlying evolutionary responses for stress related traits. Our goal through this Research Topic is not to exhaustively describe any single adaptation or survival strategy, but rather to discuss and achieve an overview of the major ways in which various insects cope with abiotic stresses such as drought, starvation, high temperatures, UV light, heavy metals, or malnutrition. We will focus on the following strategies used by insects to recognize and respond to diverse abiotic stresses and their combinations:
1. Phenotypic level: Phenotypic defects due to stress are mainly observed in wings, bristles, thorax, abdomen, and eyes. There is an immense scope in conducting studies based on why melanics occurs in nature and what impact body melanization has on heat vs. cold resistance, as well as for desiccation resistance in populations and species from different habitats.
2. Cellular Level: It is expected that energy metabolism signaling pathways like PI3K/Akt/mTOR may alter immune response, cell differentiation, or could cause carcinogenesis. Exploring their role in adaptive strategies would be of interest.
3. Molecular Level: Altered expression and molecular changes of (e.g. heat-shock proteins) during abiotic stresses would be considered.
4. Physiological Level: Investigations on physiological changes like dehydration tolerance and water balance related traits like total water content, rate of water loss and tissue water content in pre-adult and adult stages occurring during different types of stresses.
5. Metabolic Level: Changes in metabolites like carbohydrates (trehalose and glycogen), protein, lipids, proline, and many more could pay a significant role in adaptations to environmental stress.
6. Genetic Level: Population studies are welcomed to study genetic differentiation as a response to environmental stress and synergistic effects of different stress factors.
7. Behavioral level: The action, reaction, or functioning of pre-adults (larval dispersal, foraging behavior, feeding rate, pupation site preferences and pupal diapause) and adults (climbing activity and phenotypic plasticity), under normal or specified circumstances would be considered.
8. Developmental Level: The interactions between life history traits (including duration of development, viability, hatchability, and survival) and stress resistance along with responses to stress and their alteration by artificial selection would also be considered to emphasize the differences between field and laboratory investigations.
Organisms in nature experience daily and seasonal cycles of changes in humidity, temperature, and photoperiod. These climatic variations impact the demography of population and exert variable selection pressures over space and time. Insects create the biological foundations for all terrestrial ecosystems and are thus an ecological indicator of global climate changes. Noteworthy, ectothermic insects face major challenges in adapting to climate changes, thus there is growing interest in understanding the consequences of abiotic stresses in these insect populations. To understand these evolutionary and ecological relevant changes on ectothermic insects, it is pertinent to know how fast adaptive evolution of ecologically relevant traits occurs and to what role does phenotypic plasticity play in adaptations to geographical and seasonal changes.
Approaches to study how physiological processes evolve in nature include phylogenetic analysis of different geographical populations within a species, and field studies. By contrast, laboratory selection experiments can be used to understand possible mechanisms underlying evolutionary responses for stress related traits. Our goal through this Research Topic is not to exhaustively describe any single adaptation or survival strategy, but rather to discuss and achieve an overview of the major ways in which various insects cope with abiotic stresses such as drought, starvation, high temperatures, UV light, heavy metals, or malnutrition. We will focus on the following strategies used by insects to recognize and respond to diverse abiotic stresses and their combinations:
1. Phenotypic level: Phenotypic defects due to stress are mainly observed in wings, bristles, thorax, abdomen, and eyes. There is an immense scope in conducting studies based on why melanics occurs in nature and what impact body melanization has on heat vs. cold resistance, as well as for desiccation resistance in populations and species from different habitats.
2. Cellular Level: It is expected that energy metabolism signaling pathways like PI3K/Akt/mTOR may alter immune response, cell differentiation, or could cause carcinogenesis. Exploring their role in adaptive strategies would be of interest.
3. Molecular Level: Altered expression and molecular changes of (e.g. heat-shock proteins) during abiotic stresses would be considered.
4. Physiological Level: Investigations on physiological changes like dehydration tolerance and water balance related traits like total water content, rate of water loss and tissue water content in pre-adult and adult stages occurring during different types of stresses.
5. Metabolic Level: Changes in metabolites like carbohydrates (trehalose and glycogen), protein, lipids, proline, and many more could pay a significant role in adaptations to environmental stress.
6. Genetic Level: Population studies are welcomed to study genetic differentiation as a response to environmental stress and synergistic effects of different stress factors.
7. Behavioral level: The action, reaction, or functioning of pre-adults (larval dispersal, foraging behavior, feeding rate, pupation site preferences and pupal diapause) and adults (climbing activity and phenotypic plasticity), under normal or specified circumstances would be considered.
8. Developmental Level: The interactions between life history traits (including duration of development, viability, hatchability, and survival) and stress resistance along with responses to stress and their alteration by artificial selection would also be considered to emphasize the differences between field and laboratory investigations.
