Alternative developmental and transcriptomic responses to host plant water limitation in a butterfly metapopulation

The dataset is from a study examining the effects of host plant water
stress on the developmental and transcriptomic responses of its specialist
Lepidopteran herbivore. The study combines host plant metabolic profiling
with development assays and full-transcriptome sequencing of herbivore
larvae. First, we profiled metabolic differences between well-watered and
water-limited ribwort plantain (Plantago lanceolata) using proton nuclear
magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H-NMR). Second, we tested how
performance of developing Glanville fritillary (Melitaea cinxia) larvae
was affected by host plant water limitation experienced at different
larval developmental stages. Third, we examined larval gene regulatory
responses to water limited host plants by sequencing full transcriptomes
of 77 female larvae (RNA seq). Finally, to examine intrapopulation
variation in the responses of the larvae, we compared the phenotypic and
transcriptomic responses across full-sib families originating from
different parts of the metapopulation. In this dataset, we provide data
for the P. lanceolata metabolite responses to water limitation and
developmental responses of the M. cinxia larvae to feeding on water
limited P. lanceolata. The transcriptomic data are available from
NCBI's Gene Expression Omnibus, with the accession number GSE159376.