Meeting Abstract
Temperate species of insects are annually tasked with surviving the winter. Diapause allows these insects to survive harsh winter conditions. Diapause is a state of physiological dormancy characterized by decreased metabolic activity, developmental arrest, and heightened environmental stress and cold tolerance. To date, the environmental, hormonal, and genetic regulators of diapause have been well-described and characterized. However, since diapause is a complex program dependent on seasonal timing and temperature, increases in extreme climatic events have the potential to negatively alter these processes, potentially leading to increased mortality in diapausing individuals. To better understand the effects of winter warming on diapause physiology, diapausing Pieris rapae butterfly pupae were exposed to short and long-term warming events, mimicking those of concurrent and predicted climate patterns. Our results show that diapausing pupae exposed to short and long-term warming events had compromised cold tolerance levels (higher internal freezing temperatures) relative to control individuals not exposed to the warming events. Additionally, warmed individuals experienced faster developmental timing, and lowered eclosion success. Furthermore, results from global metabolomics assays suggest that biochemical traits important to diapause regulation and maintenance can also be affected by winter warming patterns. These results suggest that continued winter warming patterns will pose physiological challenges to overwintering temperate species that rely on diapause.
