Sauer Erin L, Stacy Carson, Perrine Weston, Love Ashley C, Lewis Jeffrey A, DuRant Sarah E
Department of Biological Sciences, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas, USA.
Department of Ecology, Evolution and Natural Sciences, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA.
Mol Ecol. 2025 Jun;34(12):e17793. doi: 10.1111/mec.17793. Epub 2025 May 12.
Wildlife have become increasingly dependent on anthropogenic resources, altering interactions between individuals and subsequently disease transmission. Further, nutritional quantity and quality impact an individual's ability to mitigate damage caused by infectious disease. Thus, understanding how diet affects immune function is critical for predicting disease severity and transmission. Here, we use transcriptomics to explore the previously unstudied molecular mechanisms underpinning diet-driven differences in pathogen tolerance. Using a widespread avian bacterial pathogen, we find significant diet-driven differences in the expression of many genes encoding immune response and translational machinery proteins. Prior to infection, protein-fed birds are more transcriptionally primed for infection than lipid-fed birds, resulting in greater tolerance for protein-fed birds during the recovery period. Given the importance of human supplemented food in wildlife disease systems, the molecular mechanisms by which interactions between diet and infection emerge provide insight into the ecological and immunological consequences of human behaviour on wildlife disease.
野生动物对人为资源的依赖日益增加，这改变了个体之间的相互作用，进而影响了疾病传播。此外，营养的数量和质量会影响个体减轻传染病造成损害的能力。因此，了解饮食如何影响免疫功能对于预测疾病的严重程度和传播至关重要。在这里，我们使用转录组学来探索饮食驱动的病原体耐受性差异背后尚未研究的分子机制。通过一种广泛存在的鸟类细菌病原体，我们发现许多编码免疫反应和翻译机制蛋白的基因表达存在显著的饮食驱动差异。在感染之前，喂食蛋白质的鸟类比喂食脂质的鸟类在转录上对感染的准备更充分，这导致在恢复期喂食蛋白质的鸟类具有更强的耐受性。鉴于人类补充食物在野生动物疾病系统中的重要性，饮食与感染之间相互作用产生的分子机制为了解人类行为对野生动物疾病的生态和免疫后果提供了见解。
