Sexual selection, life history and ecological immunology

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Individuals clearly benefit from combating parasites and pathogens. A central problem in evolutionary biology, however, is explaining why hosts remain susceptible to disease and why immune responses vary across populations, species and environments. We are now realizing that much of this variation is rooted in the costs of immunity: fighting disease imposes a significant drain on an individual’s resource pool that requires investment in immune function to trade off against other critical fitness components (e.g. growth and reproduction). Although investment strategies are dependent on individual factors (e.g. nutritional condition, sex, and genotype), mating system, social/mating environment, and evolutionary history, they have not received the empirical attention that they deserve. Our research will identify the role that these factors play in determining an individual’s resource allocation strategy and explain why immune responses vary across populations, species and situations. Specifically, we will identify the sex-specific evolutionary costs to reproduction (and other fitness traits) of evolving an immune system. We will also describe the interaction between individual quality and social environment during development on allocation to adult immunity and other fitness-related traits. Our research will elucidate the sex-specific genetic costs to reproduction (and other fitness traits) of deploying the immune system. Finally, we will explain how male attractiveness mediates trade-offs between immunity and reproduction, and whether mate choice provides females with material or genetic (i.e. genetically better offspring) fitness benefits. Achieving these research goals will advance and transform our understanding of immunology. The proposed research will train 3 new PhD and one new M.Sc. (as well as several B.Sc.) students in the concepts and processes of evolutionary ecology and provide them with particular expertise and skills in state-of-the art field, laboratory, analytical and statistical techniques.