Department of Biology, Section of Ecology, University of Turku , FIN-20014 Turku, Finland.
Environ Sci Technol. 2014;48(15):8793-9. doi: 10.1021/es501880b. Epub 2014 Jul 8.
Environmental pollution is considered one of the major threats to organisms. Direct effects of heavy metal pollution on various life-history traits are well recognized, while the effects of potential interactions between two distinct environmental conditions on different traits are poorly understood. Here, we have tested the effects of interactions between temperature conditions and heavy metal exposure on innate immunity and other life-history traits. Maggots of the blow fly Protophormia terraenovae were reared on either copper-contaminated or uncontaminated food, under three different temperature environments. Encapsulation response, body mass, and development time were measured for adult flies that were not directly exposed to copper. We found that the effects of copper exposure on immunity and other traits are temperature-dependent, suggesting that the ability to regulate toxic compounds in body tissues might depend on temperature conditions. Furthermore, we found that temperature has an effect on sex differences in immune defense. Males had an encapsulation response at higher temperatures stronger than that of females. Our results indicate that the effects of environmental conditions on different traits are much more intricate than what can be predicted. This is something that should be considered when conducting immunological experiments or comparing results of previous studies.
环境污染被认为是对生物的主要威胁之一。重金属污染对各种生活史特征的直接影响已得到充分认识，而对于两种不同环境条件之间潜在相互作用对不同特征的影响则知之甚少。在这里，我们测试了温度条件和重金属暴露之间的相互作用对先天免疫和其他生活史特征的影响。在三种不同的温度环境下，我们在受铜污染或未受污染的食物上饲养了地蛹金蝇（Protophormia terraenovae）的幼虫。我们测量了未直接暴露于铜的成年蝇的包被反应、体重和发育时间。我们发现，铜暴露对免疫和其他特征的影响取决于温度，这表明在体内组织中调节有毒化合物的能力可能取决于温度条件。此外，我们发现温度对免疫防御的性别差异有影响。雄性在较高温度下的包被反应比雌性强。我们的结果表明，环境条件对不同特征的影响比预期的要复杂得多。在进行免疫学实验或比较以前研究的结果时，应该考虑到这一点。
