Data from: Few genetic and environmental correlations between life history and stress resistance traits affect adaptation to fluctuating thermal regimes

Laboratory selection in thermal regimes that differed in the amplitude and the predictability of daily fluctuations had a marked effect on several fitness traits in Drosophila simulans. The observed evolutionary changes are expected to be the result of both direct and correlated responses to selection. Thus, a given trait might not evolve independently from other traits due to genetic correlations among these traits. Moreover, different test environments can induce novel genetic correlations, due to the activation of environmentally dependent genes. To test if and how genetic correlations among traits constrain evolutionary adaptation we used three populations of D. simulans laboratory natural selected and tested in constant, predictable and unpredictable daily fluctuating thermal regimes. We explored the relationship between genetic correlations between traits and the evolutionary potential of D. simulans by comparing genetic correlation matrices in flies selected and tested in different thermal test regimes. We observed genetic correlations mainly between productivity, body size, starvation and desiccation tolerance, suggesting that correlations between these traits can affect adaptation to thermal regimes. We also found that the correlations between traits such as body size and productivity or starvation tolerance and productivity were determined by test regime rather than selection regime, which can limit genetic adaptation to thermal regimes. The results of this study suggest that several traits and environments are needed to explore adaptive responses, as genetic and environmentally induced correlations between traits can be depend on the testing environment.