at Google ScholarTitle data
Steiger, Sandra ; Gershman, Susan N. ; Pettinger, Adam M. ; Eggert, Anne-Katrin ; Sakaluk, Scott K.:
Sex differences in immunity and rapid upregulation of immune defence during parental care in the burying beetle, Nicrophorus orbicollis.
In: Functional Ecology.
Vol. 25
(2011)
Issue 6
.
- pp. 1368-1378.
ISSN 1365-2435
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2435.2011.01895.x
Abstract in another language
1. Immunity may trade‐off against other important life history traits, with recent work suggesting that reproduction and parental care in particular impinge on immune defence. However, whereas the effect of parental care on immunocompetence has been intensively studied in birds and mammals, virtually nothing is known about how it affects insect immunity.
2. Burying beetles provide extensive biparental care that includes the burial, preparation and defence of a carcass, as well as the subsequent feeding of the larvae. In addition, they cover the carcass with anal exudates that have been shown to serve an antimicrobial function (social immunity sensu Behavioral Ecology, 21, 663–668). We examined the effect of sex, mating and parental care on measurements of individual and social immunity in the burying beetle Nicrophorus orbicollis.
3. Both males and females showed a rapid upregulation of the encapsulation response upon discovery of a carcass. The high encapsulation rate was maintained during the entire period of parental care. Lytic activity in anal exudates, a measure of social immunity, likewise increased. Mating had no effect on individual or social immunity, but females generally exhibited higher individual immunity than male N. orbicollis.
4. Our results suggest that the unusual breeding environment of burying beetles – a microbe‐rich carcass – has selected for an atypical pattern of immune defence, with a significant upregulation of individual and social immunity during the physically demanding period of reproduction and parental care. The simultaneous investment in two life history traits that normally compete for resources may be an adaptive response in species that breed in environments with high densities of micro‐organisms.
Further data
| Item Type: | Article in a journal |
|---|---|
| Refereed: | Yes |
| Additional notes: | BAYCEER147404 |
| Institutions of the University: | Faculties > Faculty of Biology, Chemistry and Earth Sciences Faculties > Faculty of Biology, Chemistry and Earth Sciences > Department of Biology > Chair Animal Ecology II - Evolutionary Animal Ecology > Chair Animal Ecology II - Evolutionary Animal Ecology - Univ.-Prof. Dr. Sandra Steiger Research Institutions Research Institutions > Research Centres Research Institutions > Research Centres > Bayreuth Center of Ecology and Environmental Research- BayCEER Faculties Faculties > Faculty of Biology, Chemistry and Earth Sciences > Department of Biology Faculties > Faculty of Biology, Chemistry and Earth Sciences > Department of Biology > Chair Animal Ecology II - Evolutionary Animal Ecology |
| Result of work at the UBT: | No |
| DDC Subjects: | 500 Science |
| Date Deposited: | 15 Apr 2019 07:47 |
| Last Modified: | 15 Apr 2019 07:47 |
| URI: | https://eref.uni-bayreuth.de/id/eprint/48387 |