0000000000682669
AUTHOR
Caroline Zanchi
Relationship between maternal transfer of immunity and mother fecundity in an insect.
Trans-generational immune priming (TGIP) corresponds to the plastic adjustment of offspring immunity as a result of maternal immune experience. TGIP is expected to improve mother's fitness by improving offspring individual performance in an environment where parasitism becomes more prevalent. However, it was recently demonstrated that maternal transfer of immunity to the offspring is costly for immune-challenged female insects. Thus, these females might not provide immune protection to all their offspring because of the inherent cost of other fitness-related traits. Females are therefore expected to adjust their investment to individual offspring immune protection in ways that maximize the…
Trans-generational immune priming is constrained by the maternal immune response in an insect.
5 pages; International audience; Immune-challenged vertebrate and invertebrate females can transfer immunity to their off spring. Th is trans-generational immune priming (TGIP) is benefi cial for the off spring if the maternal infection risk persists across generations. However, because immunity is costly, fi tness consequences of TGIP have been found in primed off spring. Furthermore, transferring immunity to off spring may be costly for immune-challenged females who are also carrying the costs of their immune response. A negative relationship between levels of immunity between mothers and off spring might therefore be expected. Consistent with this hypothesis, we show that in the insect, …
Differential expression and costs between maternally and paternally derived immune priming for offspring in an insect
1. When parasitized, both vertebrates and invertebrates can enhance the immune defence of their offspring, although this transfer of immunity is achieved by different mechanisms. In some insects, immune-challenged males can also initiate trans-generational immune priming (TGIP), but its expressions appear qualitatively different from the one induced by females similarly challenged. 2. The existence of male TGIP challenges the traditional view of the parental investment theory, which predicts that females should invest more into their progeny than males. However, sexual dimorphism in life-history strategies and the potential costs associated with TGIP may nevertheless lead to dissymmetric in…