The need to explain why various organisms disappear with time while others remain pushed for the development of natural selection theory. This theory relies on the ability of organisms to change their features according to the environmental conditions that surround them. Notably, the argument notes that the organisms with the best adaptations that suit the environment have a better chance of survival and fecundity, unlike the ones that fail to adapt to the environment. The role the environment plays in determining the factors that modify organisms makes the study of organisms’ surroundings an essential consideration in understanding adaptation. Mainly, the influence of the environment results in two major changes: the environment can induce changes in organisms, or the surrounding can eliminate the organisms. Hence, evaluating the mechanism that the environment uses to determine the adaptation of an organism is critical in predicting possible changes that can happen to an organism due to various environmental factors. This paper intends to use the Drosophila to illustrate the significance of the environment in Darwin’s theory of adaptation by natural selection.
Environmental changes induce changes in organisms to make the organisms better suited to their new environments. Contextually, the pressure that results from the changes can change the traits of Drosophila to make the organism adapted to new surroundings. According to Meshrif & Elkholy (2015), the environment modifies the insect by influencing Drosophila’s change in traits such as survival rates, development time, and the response to microbial infection to improve the organism’s chances of surviving environmental changes and continued procreation. Thus, the environmental impact on these traits reflects how organisms’ response to the factors determine the survival and existence of the organisms.
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First, the changes can affect the organism survival rates and development time. According to Meshrif and Elkholy (2015), food availability can affect the ability of particular varieties of Drosophila to survive. Precisely, the organisms that adapt and feeds on the available food survive, unlike the ones that fail. For instance, Drosophila’s ability to change and consume P. toletana variety of yeast improves the organism’s ability to survive in an environment where food availability is limited to the yeast species (Meshrif & Elkholy, 2015). This mechanism is an illustration of Darwin’s survival of the fittest logic that noted how the organisms with better traits survived and passed the desirable characteristics to their offsprings and ensured their continuity (Nelson, 2009). Moreover, dead drosophilas represent the fossil records of organisms that die due to the inability to fit in the environment. Besides, the development of fit lines in Drosophila increases the survival rates of the insect. The faster the growth of fit lines the shorter the development time and the higher the chances of the Drosophila species to survive (Meshrif & Elkholy, 2015). Since the African species develop lines faster than the European ones, the African varieties of Drosophila have a higher chance of survival than the European types. This case is an illustration of how genetic variation facilitates natural selection of organisms and favors them to survive environmental changes (Nelson, 2009). Thus, the environment’s effect on an organism’s development time and survival rate demonstrate how natural selection favors the survival and reproduction of adapting organisms and the elimination of those that fail to change.
Second, the influence of environmental changes in the response of microbial infections to drosophila can demonstrate the role of an organisms’ surrounding in natural selection. According to Meshrif and Elkholy (2015), the organisms that developed protective features against microorganism infections survived various pathogenic attacks. For instance, the encapsulated Drosophila has a higher resistance to attack by parasites such as Asobara tabida (Meshrif & Elkholy, 2015). The development of this protective capsule represents a local response that the organism develops to increase the insect’s ability to resist infections. Since the encapsulated organisms can pass the traits to their offsprings, their kind becomes the dominant organisms in the parasite-infested environments. This scenario is a classic representation of how inheritance of desirable traits facilitate the natural selection of organisms in various environments (Nelson, 2009). Similarly, the environment can favor strengthening the immunity of organisms to affect the microbial infections. For instance, the environmental temperature during the exposure of pathogens to Drosophilas from Africa and North America influence the insects’ ability to resist the infections (Lazzaro, Flores, Lorigan, & Yourth, 2008). Since North America’s variety are adapted to cold environments, exposing both varieties in cold environments will favor the survival of the North American type and the elimination of the African variety. Meanwhile, the opposite would happen if the pathogens infect both strains in higher temperatures. Both of these scenarios demonstrate how the variation and survival of the fittest logic in natural selection determine the survival of organisms (Nelson, 2009). Since the organisms’ environment has been critical in the demonstrating the two scenarios, an organism’s surrounding has a vital role in adaptation and natural selection of organisms.
In conclusion, the analysis of the interaction between Drosophilas and their environment offers suitable illustrations to understand how the environment’s role in natural selection. Mainly, the assessment provides insight into the relationship between the environment, the adaptation of the organisms, and their natural selection to survive and create offsprings. Hence the analysis reveals that the organisms’ surrounding can either make the organism to adapt and survive or eliminate the organism if they fail to adapt to the environmental changes. Precisely, those organisms that demonstrate the ability to vary their features and inherit the variations survived the ecological changes. Although the death of the organisms that failed to adapt could eliminate traces of their existence in specific environments, fossil records of the organisms in those environments proved their prior existence. Thus, the role of environmental changes in the adaptation and natural selection of various organisms could provide useful information in the management organism population in multiple environments.
- Lazzaro, B. P., Flores, H. A., Lorigan, J. G., & Yourth, C. P. (2008). Genotype-by-Environment Interactions and Adaptation to Local Temperature Affect Immunity and Fecundity in Drosophila melanogaster. PLoS Pathogens, 4(3), e1000025. doi:10.1371/journal.ppat.1000025
- Meshrif, W. S., & Elkholy, S. E. (2015). Genotype and environment shape the fitness of Drosophila melanogaster. The Journal of Basic & Applied Zoology, 68, 1-9. doi:10.1016/j.jobaz.2015.01.003
- Nelson, R. W. (2009). Darwin, then and now: The most amazing story in the history of science. New York, NY: iUniverse Inc.
