Linking Immune Patterns and Life History Shows Two Distinct Defense Strategies in Land Snails (Gastropoda, Pulmonata)

Life history integration of the defense response was investigated at intra- and interspecific levels in land snails of the family Helicidae. Two hypotheses were tested: (i) fitness consequences of defense responses are closely related to life history traits such as size at maturity and life span; (ii) different pathways of the immune response based on nonspecific versus specific responses may reflect different defense options. Relevant immune responses to a challenge with E. coli were measured using the following variables: blood cell density, cellular or plasma antibacterial activity via reactive oxygen species (ROS) level, and bacterial growth inhibition. The results revealed that the largest snails did not exhibit the strongest immune response. Instead, body mass influenced the type of response in determining the appropriate strategy. Snails with a higher body mass at maturity had more robust plasma immune responses than snails with a lower mass, which had greater cell-mediated immune responses with a higher hemocyte density. In addition, ROS appeared also to be a stress mediator as attested by differences between sites and generations for the same species.