DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Consequences of environmentally-mediated resistance and immunity for disease dynamics in a changing world

所有的动物，从蝴蝶到人类，都必须保护自己免受疾病的侵害。 像我们一样，许多动物都有免疫系统，可以帮助它们对抗疾病。 然而，许多动物也使用药物。 动物经常使用植物作为药物的来源，必须寻找他们的本地？绿色药房？合适的药物。这些天然药物与免疫系统一起使用，以帮助动物对抗感染。但是，当植物性药物的质量因为环境的变化而发生变化时，会发生什么呢？科学家们并不完全了解我们快速变化的世界将如何影响动物的免疫力，并通过它影响自然种群的疾病。帝王蝶受到一种寄生虫的攻击，这种寄生虫与引起人类疟疾和弓形虫病的寄生虫有关。 当帝王蝶被寄生虫感染时，它们发现很难飞行和繁殖。 然而，帝王蝶可以使用乳草植物中的天然药物与自身的免疫系统相结合，以帮助对抗寄生虫。这项研究将帮助科学家了解马利筋中可用的药用化合物如何随环境变化，以及蝴蝶可用药物的变化如何影响它们使用它们对抗寄生虫的能力。 新的疾病正在以前所未有的速度出现，环境变化对动物免疫功能的影响可能会使这一趋势变得更糟。了解环境变化对动物免疫力的影响将有助于科学家和管理人员预测哪些动物最危险，以及在哪里，以及促进改善管理决策。该项目将解决如何改变药物和营养质量影响寄生虫的能力，伤害他们的主机。它将通过探索大气CO2浓度升高对宿主饮食的药用（次级化学）和营养（碳，氮，磷）质量的影响来做到这一点。研究人员将研究饮食对免疫力的影响如何成为宿主相应变化的基础？的能力，限制寄生虫感染的成功，并减轻健身成本的感染在给定的病原体负荷。这项工作将使用具有高度饮食依赖性的系统进行：帝王蝶Danaus plexippus及其原生动物寄生虫Ophryocystis elektroscirrha（OE）。次级和初级代谢产物的马利筋（马利筋）的植物，君主消费传达增加性能对OE。至关重要的是，CO2浓度升高改变了马利筋叶的药用和营养质量。这项研究将首次阐明整个植物化学对宿主免疫力和性能的影响。

All animals, from butterflies to humans, must defend themselves against diseases. Like us, many animals have immune systems that help them to fight diseases. However, many animals also use medicines. Animals often use plants as sources of medicine and must search their local ?green pharmacy? for the appropriate drugs. These natural medicines are used together with the immune system to help the animal fight infection. But what happens when the quality of plant-based medicines changes because the environment changes? Scientists do not fully understand how our rapidly changing world will affect animal immunity and, through it, disease in natural populations. Monarch butterflies are attacked by a parasite that is related to those that cause malaria and toxoplasmosis in humans. When monarchs get infected with their parasite, they find it difficult to fly and to reproduce. However, monarchs can use natural medicines in milkweed plants in combination with their own immune systems to help combat their parasites. This research will help scientists understand how the medicinal compounds that are available in milkweed change with the environment, and how changes in medicines available to the butterflies affect their ability to use them to fight the parasite. New diseases are emerging at an unprecedented rate and the impacts of environmental change on animal immune function may make this trend worse. Understanding the influence of environmental change on animal immunity will help scientists and managers to predict which animals are most at risk and where, as well as facilitate improved management decisions.This project will address how changing medicinal and nutritional quality affects parasites' ability to harm their hosts. It will do so by exploring the effects of elevated concentrations of atmospheric CO2 on the medicinal (secondary chemistry) and nutritional (carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus) quality of host diet. The researchers will examine how dietary effects on immunity underlie corresponding shifts in a host?s ability to limit parasite infection success, and mitigate the fitness costs of infection at a given pathogen load. This work will be conducted using a system with a high degree of diet dependency: the monarch butterfly, Danaus plexippus, and its protozoan parasite, Ophryocystis elektroscirrha (OE). Secondary and primary metabolites of the milkweed (Asclepias) plants that monarchs consume convey increased performance against OE. Critically, elevated CO2 alters the medicinal and nutritional quality of milkweed foliage. This research will be the first to elucidate the effects of whole plant chemistry on host immunity and performance.