Department of Biology, Section of Ecology, University of Turku, FI-20014 Turku, Finland.
Parasitology. 2010 May;137(6):985-9. doi: 10.1017/S0031182009992009. Epub 2010 Feb 4.
Ecological immunology is based upon the notion that activation and use of the immune system is costly and should thus be traded off against other energy-demanding aspects of life history. Most of the studies on insects that have examined the possibility that mating results in trade-offs with immunity have shown that mating has immunosuppressive effects. The connection between mating and immunity has traditionally been investigated using indirect measures of immunity. However, studies that have assessed the effects of mating on the resistance against real pathogens have had conflicting results. A previous study on Tenebrio molitor showed that copulation decreases phenoloxidase activity in the haemolymph, and concluded that copulation corrupts immunity in this species. In the present study we tested whether mating also affects the ability of T. molitor to resist the entomopathogenic fungus, Beauveria bassiana. Interestingly, we found that mating enhanced resistance against the fungal infection and that the effect was stronger on males than females. Furthermore, we found that male beetles were overall more susceptible to the fungal infection than were females, indicating an immunological sex difference in immunity. Our study highlights the importance of the use of real pathogens and parasites in immuno-ecological studies.
生态免疫学基于这样一种观点，即免疫系统的激活和利用是有代价的，因此应该与生活史中其他需要能量的方面进行权衡。大多数研究昆虫的研究都表明，交配会导致与免疫的权衡，表明交配具有免疫抑制作用。传统上，人们使用免疫的间接衡量标准来研究交配与免疫之间的联系。然而，评估交配对实际病原体抗性的影响的研究得出了相互矛盾的结果。之前对黄粉虫的一项研究表明，交配会降低血液中的酚氧化酶活性，并得出结论认为交配会破坏该物种的免疫力。在本研究中，我们测试了交配是否也会影响黄粉虫抵抗昆虫病原真菌球孢白僵菌的能力。有趣的是，我们发现交配增强了对真菌感染的抵抗力，而且这种作用在雄性中比在雌性中更强。此外，我们发现雄性甲虫比雌性甲虫更容易受到真菌感染，这表明在免疫方面存在免疫的性别差异。我们的研究强调了在免疫生态研究中使用真实病原体和寄生虫的重要性。
