Immune function versus reproduction: the mediation of life history trade-offs in a risky environment

免疫功能与生殖：危险环境中生命史权衡的中介

基本信息

批准号：
NE/H014225/2
负责人：
Sheena C Cotter
金额：
$ 34.36万
依托单位：
Queen's University Belfast
依托单位国家：
英国
项目类别：
Fellowship
财政年份：
2010
资助国家：
英国
起止时间：
2010 至无数据
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=NE%2FH014225%2F2
关键词：
Immune function versus reproduction mediation

项目摘要

Resources are limited and must be divided between different functions in the body, in other words, you can't have your cake and eat it. This leads to trade-offs that we see in many different species, for example, you can have lots of small babies or few larger babies, or you can mature rapidly and have children at a small size, or grow more slowly and have children at a larger size. These trade-offs provide the key to understanding the evolution of the many and varied life-histories that generate biodiversity in the natural world, as different organisms derive different solutions to this dilemma. One such trade-off is that between maintaining your own health and putting energy into reproducing; organisms can choose to devote limited resources to their offspring or to themselves, but not both. However, this choice is particularly stark in the few organisms, including humans, who engage in costly parental care behaviours. Rather than abandoning their offspring to their fate, most mammals and birds, and even some invertebrates invest time and resources into feeding and protecting their offspring. In these organisms a large proportion of the available resources are devoted to reproduction, leaving fewer resources for self maintenance. The solution we observe is the evolutionary outcome that has been selected to provide the highest fitness returns for each species in the current environment. But what happens if the environment changes? Our warming climate is increasing the risk of disease as parasites become more abundant. Disease is a common threat that could change the amount of care that parents deliver. They may need to spend more effort on getting healthy and so neglect their children, or diseased parents may lavish extra care on their children because they are unlikely to survive to have more. Studies have shown that caring behaviours and immune responses to disease are both controlled by the same hormones in a variety of animal species. In insects, these hormones have opposite effects: increasing caring behaviour and decreasing immunity. This means that by studying caring behaviour in healthy and diseased individuals, whilst manipulating their hormone levels, we can uncover the mechanisms that control the choices parents make.I will test these ideas using burying beetles because these insects are almost unique in that both parents prepare food, feed and care for their offspring. Their caring behaviour is beneficial, as neglected offspring are less likely to survive and will grow less quickly than offspring that receive care. Using this species, I will demonstrate how caring choices change in diseased parents, whether infected mothers or fathers shift the costs of care onto their partners, and how these choices are mediated by hormones. This will provide important insights into how trade-offs are controlled and how they change in a high risk environment.

资源是有限的，必须在体内不同功能之间进行分配，换句话说，您不能吃蛋糕。例如，这导致了我们在许多不同物种中看到的权衡，例如，您可以有很多小婴儿或几个大婴儿，或者您可以迅速成熟，生育孩子的大小较小，生长更慢，并且孩子的大小更大。这些权衡为理解在自然界中产生生物多样性的许多和多样化的生活历史的演变提供了关键，因为不同的生物会给这种困境带来不同的解决方案。这样的权衡之一是，维持自己的健康和将精力繁殖到繁殖之间；有机体可以选择将有限的资源用于其后代或自己，但并非两者兼而有之。但是，在包括昂贵的父母护理行为的人类在内的少数生物体中，这种选择尤为明显。与其将其后代放弃命运，大多数哺乳动物和鸟类，甚至有些无脊椎动物投入时间和资源来喂养和保护其后代。在这些生物体中，很大一部分可用的资源都用于繁殖，而自我维护的资源却很少。我们观察到的解决方案是已选择的进化结果，以在当前环境中为每个物种提供最高的健身回报。但是，如果环境改变会发生什么？随着寄生虫变得越来越丰富，我们的变暖气候正在增加疾病的风险。疾病是一个普遍的威胁，可以改变父母提供的护理量。他们可能需要花费更多的精力来保持健康，因此忽略了孩子，或者患病的父母可能会谨慎对待孩子，因为他们不太可能生存更多。研究表明，关怀行为和对疾病的免疫反应都由多种动物物种中的相同激素控制。在昆虫中，这些激素具有相反的作用：增加关怀行为并降低免疫力。这意味着，通过研究健康和患病的个体的关怀行为，同时操纵其激素水平，我们可以发现控制父母做出选择的机制。我将使用埋葬甲虫来测试这些想法，因为这些昆虫几乎是独一无二的，因为父母双方都准备食物，饲料，饲料，饲料和照顾他们的后代。他们的关怀行为是有益的，因为被忽视的后代生存的可能性较小，并且比接受护理的后代更快。使用该物种，我将展示患病父母的关怀选择如何改变，无论受感染的母亲还是父亲将护理费用转移到其伴侣上，以及这些选择是如何由激素介导的。这将提供有关如何控制权衡以及它们如何在高风险环境中改变的重要见解。