Phenotypic plasticity (PP) is the ability of an organism with the same genotype to produce a range of phenotypes in response to varying environments. PP results from the interaction of the gene with environmental signals, so according to the PP concept, nature and nurture cannot be separated from each other. Many factors can act as a signal or stimulus to initiate PP and can come from within (e.g., the presence of a pathogen, etc.) or from outside (e.g., photoperiod, etc. .). Cues tend to be innocuous stimuli (like photoperiod) without any direct effect on the individual but induce adaptive plasticity by predicting future environmental conditions, whereas harmful agents like toxins are considered stimuli, although the division between these two is blurred. Phenotypic plasticity has been shown to adapt to the organisms that express it. The environment is constantly changing and all living beings are sensitive to the effects of abiotic and biotic factors. The only way for an individual to adapt to a changing environment is to change their phenotype. This has been demonstrated in various organisms and studied extensively in insects. Butterflies with shorter generation times and found in a seasonally diverse environment are also phenotypically plastic in various traits, such as wing coloration, body size, and pupal coloration. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay However, studies on PP, especially on early stages (e.g., pupal coloring) of tropical butterflies, are comparatively fewer than those of temperate butterflies. Studies have shown that most swallowtails exhibit a plastic trait for dimorphic pupal coloration (green and brown), whereas pink and green pupae are reported in Danaus chrysippus. In nature, the environment is heterogeneous depending on the seasons, for example in one season there is a lot of greenery (grasses, leaves etc.) and in another season the greenery is very less. As the color of the pupation substrate (the background) is a decisive factor for the survival of the immobile pupa, i.e. a green pupa can adapt very well to the green background and remain undetectable by predators, while that brown coloring can be advantageous where the background is green. there is less greenery or on substrates that are not green (e.g. brown tree trunk, soil and dead brown leaf). Thus, this color dimorphism varying according to the seasons on a heterogeneous background helps them survive their critical stage of life. Although there is considerable research on environmental factors affecting phenotypes, the genetic bases of plasticity remain less explored. In my thesis, I will address the color plasticity of tropical butterfly pupae and how it relates to environmental factors such as different pupation substrates (grasses), as well as its underlying genetics.Project 1. Genetic bases of pupal color plasticity in Mycalesis mineusOverview: Pupal color variation is not entirely dependent on environmental factors. Numerous studies have shown the hereditary nature of this phenomenon in different swallowtail butterflies such as P. zelicaon, P. polyxenes, etc. Offspring produced by artificial selection of a selected line are more similar in color to their parents. Some studies suggest that pupal color plasticity is inherited as a threshold trait. According to this model, the capacityWhether a larva produces green or brown colored pupae depends to a large extent on an underlying phenotypic variable that is hereditary. The larva that is very sensitive to green coloring may be less affected by environmental cues inducing brown color and become a green pupa and vice versa. However, the strength of the inducing stimuli is also an important factor, as is sensitivity, and it generally varies by population and species, because ecological conditions are not uniform everywhere. A tropical Nymphalidae butterfly Mycalesis mineus exhibits pupal plasticity in the form of green and brown coloration. Studies have shown that under low relative humidity conditions they produce 20% brown and 80% green pupae, while under higher relative humidity conditions (i.e. 85% humidity relative), they are almost exclusively green. Under laboratory tested conditions, they also showed that green pupae can form under all kinds of environmental cues and substrates, but that the brown coloration of pupae is exclusively confined to particular conditions, e.g. not on a leaf substrate (exclusively on an off-leaf substrate, that is to say anywhere). with the exception of the leaf substrate) and their number is significantly low at high relative humidity. My question: Is the “sensitivity” of the larvae to produce a particular color hereditary in the butterfly Mycalesis mineus? Hypothesis 1: If “sensitivity” is heritable, then selected lines of green and brown pupae should produce a higher proportion of green and brown. pupae respectively in subsequent generations. Hypothesis 2: Green pupae originating from the off-leaf substrate will tend to produce more green pupae on off-leaf leaves in subsequent generations compared to green pupae originating from the leaf substrate. Methodology: I am conducting a series of artificial selection experiments. For my "Hypothesis 1", I use a larval growth chamber in which the relative humidity is set at 60%, where we obtain a significant number of brown pupae alongside the usual green pupae. The brown and green pupae will be separated. Adults from brown and green pupae will be raised separately. Each generation will be filtered for pupal color relative to lineage (green or brown). The experience must last at least ten generations. Work completed and work in progress: For “Hypothesis 1”, I initially started with 25 brown pupae. I had 15 adults (F0) and the larvae produced by them are very less and subsequently I had no brown but all green pupae in the next generation (F1). Currently I have a large number of eggs from the stock and would like to repeat the experiment with a large sample size. For “Hypothesis 2,” I began the experiment by placing a wandering-stage larva in an empty round cage. For the first round, I put 6 larvae, each in a round cage of similar height and structure and placed these cages in the growth chamber at 60% relative humidity. I had 3 green pupae form on the cage netting and 3 other larvae died. I will test it again with a large sample size. Project 2. Effect of different host plants on pupal color plasticity. Presentation: The structure, color, softness and texture of the nymph substrate have been shown to affect the plasticity of nymph color. Previous studies on color polymorphism of Mycalesis mineus pupae were carried out on maize plants. Since corn is not found in a natural wild state for it to pupate, I want to check out the patterns 8.