Sexual selection, life history and ecological immunology

个人显然受益于对抗寄生虫和病原体。然而，进化生物学的一个核心问题是解释为什么宿主对疾病仍然敏感，以及为什么免疫反应在种群，物种和环境中各不相同。我们现在意识到，这种变化的大部分根源在于免疫力的成本：对抗疾病对个体的资源库造成了重大消耗，需要对免疫功能进行投资，以权衡其他关键的健康组成部分（例如生长和繁殖）。虽然投资策略取决于个体因素（如营养状况、性别和基因型）、交配系统、社会/交配环境和进化历史，但它们并没有得到应有的实证关注。我们的研究将确定这些因素在决定个人资源分配策略中所起的作用，并解释为什么免疫反应在人群，物种和情况之间存在差异。具体来说，我们将确定进化免疫系统的生殖（和其他适应性特征）的性别特异性进化成本。我们还将描述在发育过程中个体素质和社会环境之间的相互作用，对成人免疫和其他健身相关性状的分配。我们的研究将阐明部署免疫系统的生殖（和其他健康特征）的性别特异性遗传成本。最后，我们将解释男性吸引力如何调节免疫力和生殖力之间的权衡，以及配偶选择是否为女性提供了物质或遗传（即遗传上更好的后代）健康的好处。实现这些研究目标将推进和改变我们对免疫学的理解。拟议的研究将培养3个新的博士和一个新的硕士（以及几个B. Sc）。学生在进化生态学的概念和过程，并为他们提供特定的专业知识和技能，在国家的最先进的领域，实验室，分析和统计技术。

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.