Effects of maternal parasite load on offspring life‐history traits in the common lizard (<i>Lacerta vivipara</i>)

Sorci, Gabriele; Clobert, Jean

doi:10.1046/j.1420-9101.1995.8060711.x

Cited by 76 publications

(64 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…Hosts exposed to a parasite infection may therefore benefit from adjusting their offspring phenotype to increase their resistance to prevailing parasites. Parental infections have been reported to affect numerous life-history traits in offspring (Møller 1990;Sorci et al 1994;Sorci & Clobert 1995;Rolff 1999). For instance, in the damselfly Coenagrion puella, a high ectoparasite load (Acari: Arrenurus cuspidator) on mothers stimulates the production of fewer but larger offspring (Rolff 1999).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘Trans-generational immune priming’: specific enhancement of the antimicrobial immune response in the mealworm beetle,Tenebrio molitor

2006

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Encounters with parasites and pathogens are often unpredictable in time. However, experience of an infection may provide the host with reliable cues about the future risk of infection for the host itself or for its progeny. If the parental environment predicts the quality of the progeny's environment, then parents may further enhance their net reproductive success by differentially providing their offspring with phenotypes to cope with potential hazards such as pathogen infection. Here, I test for the occurrence of such an adaptive transgenerational phenotypic plasticity in the mealworm beetle, Tenebrio molitor . A pathogenic environment was mimicked by injection of bacterial lipopolysaccharides for two generations of insects. I found that parental challenge enhanced offspring immunity through the inducible production of antimicrobial peptides in the haemolymph.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘Trans-generational immune priming’: specific enhancement of the antimicrobial immune response in the mealworm beetle,Tenebrio molitor

2006

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“…Parasites can induce mortality in lizards in laboratory conditions (Schall 1983(Schall , 1986(Schall , 1996, but this is rarely reported in studies of natural host-parasite interactions. More commonly, lizards show fitness-related effects of parasites, such as poorer body condition (Sorci and Clobert 1995;Merino et al 2000) or slower running speed (Oppliger et al 1996). Parasites can cause lizards to move shorter distances (Main and Bull 2000), occupy smaller home ranges (Main and Bull 2000) or have reduced social status where infected males display fewer courtships and less territorial behaviour than uninfected males (Dunlap and Schall 1995).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Susceptibility to infection by a haemogregarine parasite and the impact of infection in the Australian sleepy lizard Tiliqua rugosa

et al. 2007

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The Hamilton and Zuk hypothesis on haemoparasite-mediated sexual selection and certain studies of fitness are based on the assumption that blood parasite infections are detrimental to their hosts. However, there are few reports that have demonstrated harmful effects of endemic blood parasites on fitness in wild populations, and it has even been suggested that they may be non-pathogenic. In this paper, we show that individuals of the Australian sleepy lizard (Tiliqua rugosa) have smaller home ranges when they are infected with the haemogregarine blood parasite Hemolivia mariae than when no infection can be detected. An apparently contradictory result was that lizards with larger home ranges were more susceptible to infection under experimental exposure to Hemolivia. We propose that lizards sacrifice defence against pathogens by increased activity, perhaps associated with maintaining home ranges and mating opportunities. As a consequence, they gain higher parasite loads, which in turn inhibit their activity. In this case, the parasite-host interaction may act as a buffer of lizard activity.

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“…In this context, we might expect that life history traits of these interacting species show a certain degree of covariation. The evolution of host life history traits in response to the pathogenic effect of parasites has recently received attention from both theoretical and experimental studies (Minchella 1985 ;Hochberg et al 1992 ;Forbes 1993 ;Lafferty 1993 ;Sorci & Clobert 1995 ;Sorci et al 1996). These studies have pointed out that under certain circumstances host life history evolution may be parasite driven.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Host–parasite coevolution: comparative evidence for covariation of life history traits in primates and oxyurid parasites

Sorci

Morand

Hugot³

1997

Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B

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SUMMARYThe environmental factors that drive the evolution of parasite life histories are mostly unknown. Given that hosts provide the principal environmental features parasites have to deal with, and given that these features (such as resource availability and immune responses) are well characterized by the life history of the host, we may expect natural selection to result in covariation between parasite and host life histories. Moreover, some parasites show a high degree of host specificity, and cladistic analyses have shown that host and parasite phylogenies can be highly congruent. These considerations suggest that parasite and host life histories may covary. The central argument in the theory of life history evolution concerns the existence of trade-offs between traits. For parasitic nematodes it has been shown that larger body sizes induce higher fecundity, but this is achieved at the expense of delayed maturity. As high adult mortality would select for reduced age at maturity, the selective benefit of increased fecundity is expressed only if adult mortality is low. Parasite adult mortality may depend on a number of factors, including host longevity. Here we tested the hypothesis concerning the positive covariation between parasite body size (which reflects parasite longevity) and host longevity. To achieve this goal, we used the association between the pinworms (Oxyuridae, Nematoda) and their primate hosts. Oxyurids are highly host specific and are supposed to be involved in a coevolutionary process with their hosts. We found that female parasite body length was positively correlated with host longevity after correcting for phylogeny and host body mass. Conversely, male parasite body length and host longevity were not correlated. These results confirm that host longevity may represent a constraint on the evolution of body size in oxyurids, at least in females. The discrepancy between female and male oxyurids is likely to depend on the particular mode of reproduction of this taxon (haplodiploidy), which should result in weak (or even null) selection pressures to an increase of body size in males.

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Effects of maternal parasite load on offspring life‐history traits in the common lizard (Lacerta vivipara)

Cited by 76 publications

References 4 publications

‘Trans-generational immune priming’: specific enhancement of the antimicrobial immune response in the mealworm beetle,Tenebrio molitor

‘Trans-generational immune priming’: specific enhancement of the antimicrobial immune response in the mealworm beetle,Tenebrio molitor

Susceptibility to infection by a haemogregarine parasite and the impact of infection in the Australian sleepy lizard Tiliqua rugosa

Host–parasite coevolution: comparative evidence for covariation of life history traits in primates and oxyurid parasites

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