Moret Y, Schmid-Hempel P
Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich, Ecology and Evolution, ETH-Zentrum NW, 8092 Zürich, Switzerland.
Nature. 2001 Nov 29;414(6863):506. doi: 10.1038/35107138.
Immune-challenged vertebrate females transfer specific antibodies to their offspring, but this gratuitous immunity cannot operate in invertebrates. Here we show that constitutive immune defence is enhanced in sexual offspring of the bumble-bee Bombus terrestris L. when the parental colony is immune-challenged. Our findings indicate that invertebrates may use a different component of the immune system to generate a facultative trans-generational increase in the immune response.
受到免疫挑战的脊椎动物雌性会将特定抗体传递给后代，但这种无偿免疫在无脊椎动物中无法发挥作用。我们在此表明，当亲代蜂群受到免疫挑战时，地熊蜂（Bombus terrestris L.）有性后代的组成性免疫防御会增强。我们的研究结果表明，无脊椎动物可能会利用免疫系统的不同组成部分来产生免疫反应的兼性跨代增强。
