DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Migratory trade-offs: Immune defense balanced against reproductive and movement behaviors

重大活动需要大量的精力和个别资源的投入。与此同时，动物需要能够应对可能的疾病和感染的挑战。这项研究将使用帝王蝶，它每年进行两次主要的迁徙，以确定像迁徙这样的能量消耗事件如何影响免疫系统应对挑战的能力。帝王蝶(Danaus Plexippus)是一种标志性的昆虫，每年从加拿大北部迁徙到墨西哥中部的越冬地点，是世界上昆虫物种中距离最长的双向迁徙之一。该项目将以帝王企鹅为模型，研究迁徙和繁殖在整个年度迁徙周期中对免疫系统的影响。由于迁徙动物的路途遥远，栖息地多样，对传染病的传播具有深远的影响，并可能携带西尼罗河病毒、禽流感病毒和埃博拉病毒等已知对人类健康构成威胁的病原体。该项目将帮助提供一个框架，以确定沿其年度周期的迁徙物种可能最容易感染传染病的点。这篇论文项目之前已经确定，帝王鸟的免疫防御是资源有限的，是与生长之间的权衡，并与野外迁徙距离有关。这里提出的这项研究将在实验中操纵繁殖和飞行，以衡量它们对帝王免疫防御组成部分的独立影响。一项实验将操纵生殖滞育(迁徙的前兆)，以检验仅生殖成熟是否会降低宿主的防御能力，或者动物是否必须主动繁殖才能体验到这些成本。第二个实验将模拟帝王的活跃飞行，并测量生殖性和非生殖性成虫免疫防御的变化。结合起来，这些研究将有助于确定该物种和其他迁徙物种免疫变异的基础因素。这个跨学科的项目借鉴了动物行为学、生理学、生态学和免疫学的概念和方法。迁徙的生理和行为机制仍在积极研究中，部分原因是最近在追踪远距离移动物种方面取得了进展。使用一种实验上容易驯化的物种，这项工作将促进对免疫防御如何在年度迁徙周期中发生变化以及这如何依赖于相互竞争的移动和繁殖需求的总体理解。数据存储和共享：数据将存储在奥德姆生态学院的外部存储设备和安全的服务器空间中。此外，UGA图书馆还维护一个机构储存库，用于数据存储。所有主要数据文件将以制表符分隔的文本文件形式在Dryad数字存储库(http://datadryad.org/))共享，并与出版物一起发布或在完成拟议研究的两年内共享。由于这项工作涉及一种非模式昆虫物种，对研究生态免疫学和疾病生态学的研究人员具有重要意义，因此共同PI将与生态免疫学(http://ccoon.myweb.usf.edu/ecoimmunology.org/About_Home.html)的研究协调网络共享相关的实验信息(即优化的免疫分析方案)

Major activities require the use of large amounts of energy and commitment of individual resources. At the same time animals need to be able to respond to the challenges of possible disease and infection. The research will use the monarch butterfly, which makes two major yearly migrations to determine how energy extensive events like migration impact the ability of the immune system to respond to challenges. Monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus) are iconic insects that undergo one of the longest distance two-way migrations of any insect species in the world, traveling from as far North as Canada to overwintering sites in Central Mexico each year. Using monarchs as a model, this project will investigate the effects of movement and reproduction on immunity throughout the course of the annual migratory cycle. Because of their long journeys and coverage of diverse habitats, migratory animals have far-reaching implications for the spread of infectious diseases, and can harbor pathogens of known human health risks such as West Nile virus, avian influenza virus and Ebola virus. This project will help provide a framework for determining the points along their annual cycles that migratory species might be most vulnerable to infectious diseases. This dissertation project has previously established that immune defense in monarchs is resource-limited, trades-off against growth, and is associated with migratory distances in the wild. The study proposed here will experimentally manipulate reproduction and flight to measure their independent consequences for components of monarch immune defense. One experiment will manipulate reproductive diapause (a precursor to migration) to examine whether reproductive maturity alone lowers host defenses, or if animals must actively reproduce to experience these costs. A second experiment will mimic active flight in monarchs and measure resulting changes in immune defense for both reproductive and non-reproductive adults. In combination, these studies will help identify factors that underlie immune variation in this and other migratory species. This interdisciplinary project draws on concepts and methods from animal behavior, physiology, ecology and immunology. The physiological and behavioral mechanisms of migration remain under active study owing in part to recent advances in tracking mobile species over long distances. Using an experimentally tractable species, this work will advance general understanding of how immune defense can change throughout the annual migratory cycle and how this depends on competing demands of movement and reproduction.Data storage and sharing:Data will be stored on an external storage device as well as a secure server space in the Odum School of Ecology. In addition, UGA libraries maintain an institutional repository for data storage. All main data files will be shared as tab delimited text files at the Dryad Digital Repository (http://datadryad.org/) in conjunction with publication or within 2 years of completing the proposed research. Because the work involves a non-model insect species with implications for researchers studying ecoimmunology and disease ecology, the co-PIs will share pertinent experimental information (i.e. optimized immune assay protocols) with the Research Coordination Network in Ecoimmunology (http://ccoon.myweb.usf.edu/ecoimmunology.org/About_Home.html)