All organisms experience some stress during development, and have mechanisms for countering the effects of stress. The mechanisms are costly, and if the stress is great enough, force trade-offs with other life history characters. These trade-offs may result in divergences from the optimal phenotype seen in unstressed individuals. Drosophila melanogaster fruit flies derived from populations collected near the Chernobyl nuclear power plant where they had been chronically exposed to low-level ionizing radiation for generations, and flies exposed to ionizing radiation in the laboratory, showed some disturbances in their recombination rates, their gonadal development, and their developmental stability as measured by fluctuating asymmetry. The theoretical implications of this and other stresses and selection pressures that may be operating in Drosophila melanogaster and other taxa are discussed.
","abstract_html":"<p>All organisms experience some stress during development, and have mechanisms for countering the effects of stress. The mechanisms are costly, and if the stress is great enough, force trade-offs with other life history characters. These trade-offs may result in divergences from the optimal phenotype seen in unstressed individuals. <em>Drosophila melanogaster</em> fruit flies derived from populations collected near the Chernobyl nuclear power plant where they had been chronically exposed to low-level ionizing radiation for generations, and flies exposed to ionizing radiation in the laboratory, showed some disturbances in their recombination rates, their gonadal development, and their developmental stability as measured by fluctuating asymmetry. The theoretical implications of this and other stresses and selection pressures that may be operating in <em>Drosophila melanogaster</em> and other taxa are discussed.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Fuller, Brent Alan"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"PhD","degree_level":"Campus Access Dissertation","degree_discipline":"Biological Sciences","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Timothy A. Mousseau"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2009,"date_issued":"2009-01-01T08:00:00Z","date_published":"2009-01-01T08:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T04:36:43Z","subjects":["Life Sciences","Medicine and Health Sciences","Physical Sciences and Mathematics"],"languages":[],"rights":["© 2009, Brent Alan Fuller"],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd/31","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Timothy A. Mousseau"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Fuller, Brent Alan"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Biological Sciences"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Campus Access Dissertation"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["PhD"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Life Sciences","Medicine and Health Sciences","Physical Sciences and Mathematics"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["© 2009, Brent Alan Fuller"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd/31"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["All organisms experience some stress during development, and have mechanisms for countering the effects of stress. The mechanisms are costly, and if the stress is great enough, force trade-offs with other life history characters. These trade-offs may result in divergences from the optimal phenotype seen in unstressed individuals. Drosophila melanogaster fruit flies derived from populations collected near the Chernobyl nuclear power plant where they had been chronically exposed to low-level ionizing radiation for generations, and flies exposed to ionizing radiation in the laboratory, showed some disturbances in their recombination rates, their gonadal development, and their developmental stability as measured by fluctuating asymmetry. The theoretical implications of this and other stresses and selection pressures that may be operating in Drosophila melanogaster and other taxa are discussed.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["On the Effects of Stress, Resistance to Stress, and Developmental Stability On Life History Characters In Drosophila Melanogaster"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Timothy A. Mousseau"],"dc:creator":["Fuller, Brent Alan"],"dc:description.abstract":["All organisms experience some stress during development, and have mechanisms for countering the effects of stress. The mechanisms are costly, and if the stress is great enough, force trade-offs with other life history characters. These trade-offs may result in divergences from the optimal phenotype seen in unstressed individuals. Drosophila melanogaster fruit flies derived from populations collected near the Chernobyl nuclear power plant where they had been chronically exposed to low-level ionizing radiation for generations, and flies exposed to ionizing radiation in the laboratory, showed some disturbances in their recombination rates, their gonadal development, and their developmental stability as measured by fluctuating asymmetry. The theoretical implications of this and other stresses and selection pressures that may be operating in Drosophila melanogaster and other taxa are discussed.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd/31"],"dc:rights":["© 2009, Brent Alan Fuller"],"dc:subject":["Life Sciences","Medicine and Health Sciences","Physical Sciences and Mathematics"],"dc:title":["On the Effects of Stress, Resistance to Stress, and Developmental Stability On Life History Characters In Drosophila Melanogaster"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Biological Sciences"],"thesis:degree_level":["Campus Access Dissertation"],"thesis:degree_name":["PhD"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T04:36:43Z"}