Formica Vincent, Chan Amanda Kar-Men
Department of Biology, Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2015 Oct 29;10(10):e0141167. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0141167. eCollection 2015.
Ecological immunology is an interdisciplinary field that helps elucidate interactions between the environment and immune response. The host species individuals experience have profound effects on immune response in many species of insects. However, this conclusion comes from studies of herbivorous insects even though species of mycophagous insects also inhabit many different host species. The goal of this study was to determine if fungal host species as well as individual, sex, body size, and host patch predict one aspect of immune function, phenoloxidase activity (PO). We sampled a metapopulation of Bolitotherus cornutus, a mycophagous beetle in southwestern Virginia. B. cornutus live on three species of fungus that differ in nutritional quality, social environment, and density. A filter paper phenoloxidase assay was used to quantify phenoloxidase activity. Overall, PO activity was significantly repeatable among individuals (0.57) in adult B. cornutus. While there was significant variance among individuals in PO activity, there were surprisingly no significant differences in PO activity among subpopulations, beetles living on different host species, or between the sexes; there was also no effect of body size. Our results suggest that other factors such as age, genotype, disease prevalence, or natal environment may be generating variance among individuals in PO activity.
生态免疫学是一个跨学科领域，有助于阐明环境与免疫反应之间的相互作用。宿主物种个体经历对许多昆虫物种的免疫反应有深远影响。然而，这一结论来自对植食性昆虫的研究，尽管食菌昆虫物种也栖息于许多不同的宿主物种。本研究的目的是确定真菌宿主物种以及个体、性别、体型和宿主斑块是否能预测免疫功能的一个方面，即酚氧化酶活性（PO）。我们对弗吉尼亚西南部的一种食菌甲虫——角瘤扁谷盗的一个集合种群进行了采样。角瘤扁谷盗生活在三种营养质量、社会环境和密度不同的真菌上。采用滤纸酚氧化酶测定法来量化酚氧化酶活性。总体而言，成年角瘤扁谷盗个体间的PO活性具有显著的重复性（0.57）。虽然个体间PO活性存在显著差异，但令人惊讶的是，亚种群、生活在不同宿主物种上的甲虫或不同性别之间的PO活性没有显著差异；体型也没有影响。我们的结果表明，其他因素，如年龄、基因型、疾病流行率或出生环境，可能导致个体间PO活性存在差异。
