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

• 批准号: NE/H014225/1
• 负责人: Sheena C Cotter
• 金额: $ 36.62万
• 依托单位: University of Cambridge
• 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%2F1
• 关键词: Immune; function; versus; reproduction; mediation

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，必须在身体的不同功能之间进行分配，换句话说，你不能鱼与熊掌兼得。这导致了我们在许多不同物种中看到的权衡，例如，你可以有很多小婴儿或很少有大婴儿，或者你可以快速成熟，以较小的尺寸生孩子，或者生长较慢，以较大的尺寸生孩子。这些权衡为理解自然界中产生生物多样性的许多不同的生命史的进化提供了关键，因为不同的生物体对这一困境有不同的解决方案。其中一个权衡是在保持自身健康和将能量用于繁殖之间;生物体可以选择将有限的资源用于后代或自身，但不能两者兼而有之。然而，这种选择在包括人类在内的少数生物体中尤其明显，他们从事昂贵的父母照顾行为。大多数哺乳动物和鸟类，甚至一些无脊椎动物都投入时间和资源来喂养和保护它们的后代，而不是将它们的后代交给命运。在这些生物体中，大部分可用资源用于繁殖，留给自我维持的资源较少。我们观察到的解决方案是进化的结果，已经选择为当前环境中的每个物种提供最高的适应度回报。但如果环境发生变化会发生什么？我们的气候变暖正在增加疾病的风险，因为寄生虫变得更加丰富。疾病是一种常见的威胁，可能会改变父母提供的护理量。他们可能需要花更多的精力来保持健康，因此忽视了他们的孩子，或者患病的父母可能会对他们的孩子给予额外的照顾，因为他们不太可能活下来拥有更多。研究表明，在各种动物物种中，关怀行为和对疾病的免疫反应都由相同的激素控制。在昆虫中，这些激素具有相反的效果：增加关怀行为和降低免疫力。这意味着通过研究健康和患病个体的关爱行为，同时控制他们的激素水平，我们可以揭示控制父母做出选择的机制。我将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，因为父母双方都为后代准备食物，饲料和照顾。他们的照顾行为是有益的，因为被忽视的后代不太可能存活，并且比接受照顾的后代生长得更慢。利用这个物种，我将展示如何照顾患病的父母的选择改变，是否感染的母亲或父亲转移照顾他们的合作伙伴的成本，以及这些选择是如何介导的激素。这将为如何控制权衡以及它们在高风险环境中如何变化提供重要的见解。