Posgrado en Ciencias Agropecuarias Y Recursos Naturales, Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México, Instituto Literario No, 100, Col. Centro, C.P. 50000, Toluca, Estado de México, Mexico.
Instituto para la Conservación de la Cordillera Neovolcánica ante el Cambio Climático A.C, Calle Lago Atitlán No. 502-B, C.P. 50100, Toluca, Estado de México, Mexico.
Naturwissenschaften. 2022 Jun 25;109(4):34. doi: 10.1007/s00114-022-01793-x.
We present the first study that compares phenological variation in parasite load and inflammatory response in a lizard with asynchronous male and female gonadal cycles. Other studies have used many species with seasonal and synchronous reproductive cycles, in which it is difficult to decouple the effects of internal and external factors that can affect parasite abundance in each sex. Species with asynchronous reproductive cycles provide the opportunity to study the effects of seasonality and reproductive condition separately, but few studies have documented variation in parasite abundance in these species. We made an extensive comparison of parasite load and inflammatory response of the lizard Sceloporus torquatus, a species with asynchronous reproductive cycles, throughout its active period. We hypothesized that the parasite load would be higher in the period of maximum gonadal activity for each sex, negatively related to body condition and inflammatory response. Our results partially support the hypothesis; males had more parasites in summer than in spring and autumn, while females had more parasites in spring and summer than in autumn; however, we do not find a relationship between parasite load, body condition and inflammatory response. Our results indicated that host-parasite interactions are complex and depend upon both environmental and internal factors. Therefore, longer-term studies may provide a more comprehensive picture of host-parasite dynamics in populations of wild lizards.
我们首次比较了具有异步雌雄生殖周期的蜥蜴寄生虫负荷和炎症反应的物候变化。其他研究使用了许多具有季节性和同步生殖周期的物种，在这些物种中，很难将内部和外部因素的影响分开，这些因素可能会影响每个性别的寄生虫丰度。具有异步生殖周期的物种提供了单独研究季节性和生殖状况影响的机会，但很少有研究记录这些物种中寄生虫丰度的变化。我们对具有异步生殖周期的蜥蜴 Sceloporus torquatus 的寄生虫负荷和炎症反应进行了广泛比较，涵盖了其活跃期。我们假设，在每个性别的最大性腺活动期间，寄生虫负荷会更高，与身体状况和炎症反应呈负相关。我们的结果部分支持了这一假设；雄性在夏季的寄生虫比春季和秋季多，而雌性在春季和夏季的寄生虫比秋季多；然而，我们没有发现寄生虫负荷、身体状况和炎症反应之间的关系。我们的结果表明，宿主-寄生虫相互作用是复杂的，取决于环境和内部因素。因此，长期研究可能会更全面地了解野生蜥蜴种群中的宿主-寄生虫动态。
