The effects of adaptation to urea on feeding rates and growth in larvae.

A collection of forty populations were used to study the phenotypic adaptation of larvae to urea-laced food. A long-term goal of this research is to map genes responsible for these phenotypes. This mapping requires large numbers of populations.

Predicting death by the loss of intestinal function.

The ability to predict when an individual will die can be extremely useful for many research problems in aging. A technique for predicting death in the model organism, Drosophila melanogaster, has been proposed which relies on an increase in the permeability of the fly intestinal system, allowing dyes from the diet to permeate the body of the fly shortly before death. In this study we sought to verify this claim in a large cohort study using different populations of D.

The Evolution of Ovoviviparity in a Temporally Varying Environment.

Environments that vary within a generation of an organism provide opportunities for adaptation if the level of variation is severe and predictable. We describe a model of evolution in such environments with genotypes that show trade-offs in viability and fecundity. One genotype develops rapidly and has superior viability but reduced fertility relative to the alternative genotype.