Journal
PARASITOLOGY
Volume 137, Issue 6, Pages 985-989Publisher
CAMBRIDGE UNIV PRESS
DOI: 10.1017/S0031182009992009
Keywords
host resistance tests; immune defence; life history trade-offs; mating; sexual dimorphism
Categories
Funding
- Academy of Finland
- Finnish Cultural Foundation's Varsmais-Suomi Regional Fund
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Ecological immunology is based upon the notion that activation and use of the immune system is costly and should thus be traded off against other energy-demanding aspects of life history. Most of the studies on insects that have examined the possibility that mating results in trade-offs with immunity have shown that mating has immunosuppressive effects The connection between mating and immunity has traditionally been investigated using indirect measures of immunity However, studies that have assessed the effects of mating on the resistance against real pathogens have had conflicting results A previous study on Tenebrio molitor showed that copulation decreases phenoloxidase activity in the haemolymph, and concluded that copulation corrupts immunity in this species In the present study we tested whether mating also affects the ability of T molitor to resist the entomopathogenic fungus, Beauverra bassiana Interestingly, we found that mating enhanced resistance against the fungal infection and that the effect was stronger on males than females Furthermore, we found that male beetles were over all more susceptible to the fungal infection than were females, indicating an immunological sex difference in immunity. Our study highlights the importance of the use of real pathogens and parasites in immuno-ecological studies
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available