Hsu SK, Lai WY, Novak J, Lehner F, Jakšić AM, Versace E, Schlötterer C.

Genome Biol. 2024 May 28;25(1):141. doi:10.1186/s13059-024-03285-9

Reproductive isolation arises during laboratory adaptation to a novel hot environment.

“After more than 100 generations of adaptation to a novel high temperature regime, we [...] observed significant mate discrimination between ancestral and hot-evolved populations but not for replicate populations evolved independently to the same selection regime.” “We detected 18 major CHC [(cuticular hydrocarbons)] compounds across both sexes, which differ in length of carbon chain or numbers of double bonds” “similar modifications in CHC compositions have been documented for multiple Drosophila species in latitudinal clines, implying that the same causal link with temperature adaptation is also present in natural populations.” “Crosses between replicates of the evolved populations produced on average 8.3% fewer viable offspring than crosses within the same replicates of the evolved populations”