Multivariate immune defences and fitness in the wild: complex but ecologically important associations among plasma antibodies, health and survival

Nussey, Daniel H.; Watt, Kathryn; Clark, A F; Pilkington, Jill G.; Pemberton, Josephine M.; Graham, Andrea L.; McNeilly, Tom N.

doi:10.1098/rspb.2013.2931

Cited by 65 publications

(94 citation statements)

References 51 publications

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“…Interspecific comparisons provide evidence that immune responsiveness varies with average lifespan (Tella et al 2002), suggesting a relationship between immunity and longevity. It is unclear, however, whether intraspecific variation in immune responsiveness is associated with individual differences in longevity and lifetime reproductive success within populations (Viney et al 2005, Nussey et al 2014). Life-history theory posits that investment in immune function should vary with pace of life (e.g., Martin et al 2001, Ricklefs and Wikelski 2002, Lee 2006).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neonatal body condition, immune responsiveness, and hematocrit predict longevity in a wild bird population

Bowers

Hodges

Forsman

et al. 2014

Ecology

131

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Measures of body condition, immune function, and hematological health are widely used in ecological studies of vertebrate populations, predicated on the assumption that these traits are linked to fitness. However, compelling evidence that these traits actually predict long-term survival and reproductive success among individuals in the wild is lacking. Here, we show that body condition (i.e., size-adjusted body mass) and cutaneous immune responsiveness to phytohaemagglutinin (PHA) injection among neonates positively predict recruitment and subsequent longevity in a wild, migratory population of house wrens (Troglodytes aedon). However, neonates with intermediate hematocrit had the highest recruitment and longevity. Neonates with the highest PHA responsiveness and intermediate hematocrit prior to independence eventually produced the most offspring during their lifetime breeding on the study site. Importantly, the effects of PHA responsiveness and hematocrit were revealed while controlling for variation in body condition, sex, and environmental variation. Thus, our data demonstrate that body condition, cutaneous immune responsiveness, and hematocrit as a neonate are associated with individual fitness. Although hematocrit's effect is more complex than traditionally thought, our results suggest a previously underappreciated role for this trait in influencing survival in the wild.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neonatal body condition, immune responsiveness, and hematocrit predict longevity in a wild bird population

Bowers

Hodges

Forsman

et al. 2014

Ecology

131

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Chambert et al 2012). These include measuring specific subtypes of antibodies (e.g., Nussey et al 2014) or monitoring antibody levels for conservation purposes (e.g., Chang et al 2007). Detailed studies on the persistence of humoral immunity are also available for domesticated animals and humans (e.g., Amanna et al 2007).…”

Section: Acquired Immune Response In Long-lived Birdsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Long Antibody Persistence and Transgenerational Transfer of Immunity in a Long-Lived Vertebrate

Ramos

Garnier

González‐Solís

et al. 2014

The American Naturalist

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JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.. abstract: Although little studied in natural populations, the persistence of immunoglobulins may dramatically affect the dynamics of immunity and the ecology and evolution of host-pathogen interactions involving vertebrate hosts. By means of a multiple-year vaccination design against Newcastle disease virus, we experimentally addressed whether levels of specific antibodies can persist over several years in females of a long-lived procellariiform seabird-Cory's shearwater-and whether maternal antibodies against that antigen could persist over a long period in offspring several years after the mother was exposed. We found that a single vaccination led to high levels of antibodies for several years and that the females transmitted antibodies to their offspring that persisted for several weeks after hatching even 5 years after a single vaccination. The temporal persistence of maternally transferred antibodies in nestlings was highly dependent on the level at hatching. A second vaccination boosted efficiently the level of antibodies in females and thus their transfer to offspring. Overall, these results stress the need to consider the temporal dynamics of immune responses if we are to understand the evolutionary ecology of host-parasite interactions and trade-offs between immunity and other life-history characteristics, in particular in long-lived species. They also have strong implications for conservation when vaccination may be used in natural populations facing disease threats.

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“…Ecoimmunologists are generally interested in natural variation in constitutive and induced immune responses because this variation may have consequences for the survival and reproductive success of individuals (Pedersen and Babayan, 2011). For example, ecoimmunologists have discovered that antibody concentrations predict overwinter survival in some populations (Graham et al, 2010; Nussey et al, 2014; Raberg and Stjernman, 2003), highlighting the influence of immune variation in population dynamics. Although it may be easier to weed out or ignore natural variation in immunity when addressing neuro-endocrine-immune interactions, it is important to keep in mind that variation in immunity is the natural state.…”

Section: Why Should Psychoneuroimmunologists Care About Ecoimmunolmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ecoimmunology for psychoneuroimmunologists: Considering context in neuroendocrine–immune–behavior interactions

Demas

Carlton

2015

Brain, Behavior, and Immunity

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The study of immunity has become an important area of investigation for researchers in a wide range of areas outside the traditional discipline of immunology. For the last several decades, psychoneuroimmunology (PNI) has strived to identify key interactions among the nervous, endocrine and immune systems and behavior. More recently, the field of ecological immunology (ecoimmunology) has been established within the perspectives of ecology and evolutionary biology, sharing with PNI an appreciation of the environmental influences on immune function. The primary goal of ecoimmunology is to understand immune function within a broadly integrative, organismal context, typically from an ultimate, evolutionary perspective. To accomplish this ecoimmunology, like PNI, has become a broadly integrative field of investigation, combining diverse approaches from evolution and ecology to endocrinology and neurobiology. The disciplines of PNI and ecoimmunology, with their unique yet complementary perspectives and methodologies, have much to offer one another. Researchers in both fields, however, remain largely unaware of each other's findings despite attempts at integration. The goal of this review is to share with psychoneuroimmunologists and other mechanistically-oriented researchers some of the core concepts and principles, as well as relevant recent findings, within ecoimmunology with the hope that this information will prove relevant to their own research programs. More broadly, our goal is to attempt to integrate both the proximate and ultimate perspectives offered by PNI and ecoimmunology respectively into a common theoretical framework for understanding neuro-endocrine-immune interactions and behavior in a larger ecological, evolutionary context.

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Multivariate immune defences and fitness in the wild: complex but ecologically important associations among plasma antibodies, health and survival

Cited by 65 publications

References 51 publications

Neonatal body condition, immune responsiveness, and hematocrit predict longevity in a wild bird population

Neonatal body condition, immune responsiveness, and hematocrit predict longevity in a wild bird population

Long Antibody Persistence and Transgenerational Transfer of Immunity in a Long-Lived Vertebrate

Ecoimmunology for psychoneuroimmunologists: Considering context in neuroendocrine–immune–behavior interactions

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