Figure 2.

Natural variation in defense. Bacterial load (A), survival (B), and fecundity (C) over five days post-infection. The solid red line is the overall estimate of each phenotype calculated across all diets and genotypes. The black lines represent each genotype across both diets. The dashed red lines are the overall estimates of uninfected CO₂ control flies. The majority of the mortality occurs within the first two days after infection, when bacterial loads are at their highest. We term this the “acute” phase of infection. Bacterial load and survival stabilize after day 3, into the “chronic” phase of infection. The difference in fecundity between infected and uninfected flies occurs during the acute phase, with a mean of 9.14 offspring per infected female and 15.63 offspring per uninfected female in the second day after infection. There is genetic variation for all three phenotypes measured.