Specific variability in the immune system across life-history stages
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| Authors: | Love, OP; Salvante, KG; Dale, J; Williams, TD |
| Year: | 2008 |
| Journal: | American Naturalist 172: E99-E112 Article Link (DOI) |
| Title: | Specific variability in the immune system across life-history stages |
| Abstract: | Organisms theoretically manage their immune systems optimally across their life spans to maximize fitness. However, we lack information on ( 1) how the immune system is managed across life-history stages, ( 2) whether the sexes manage immunity differentially, and ( 3) whether immunity is repeatable within an individual. We present a within-individual, repeated-measures experiment examining life-history stage variation in the inflammatory immune response in the zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata). In juveniles, age-dependent variation in immune response differed in a sex-and context-specific manner, resulting in no repeatability across stages. In adults, females displayed little stage-dependent variation in immune response when laying while receiving a high-quality ( HQ) diet; however, laying while receiving a low-quality (LQ) diet significantly reduced both immune responses and reproductive outputs in amanner consistent with a facultative (resource-driven) effect of reproduction on immunity. Moreover, a reduced immune response in females who were raising offspring while receiving an HQ diet suggests a residual effect of the energetic costs of reproduction. Conversely, adult males displayed no variation in immune responses across stages, with high repeatability from the nonbreeding stage to the egg-laying stage, regardless of diet quality ( HQ diet,; LQ diet,). r = 0.51 r = 0.42 Females displayed high repeatability when laying while receiving the HQ diet (r = 0.53); however, repeatability disappeared when individuals received the LQ diet. High-response females receiving the HQ diet had greater immune flexibility than did low-response females who were laying while receiving the LQ diet. Data are consistent with immunity being a highly plastic trait that is sex-specifically modulated in a context-dependent manner and suggest that immunity at one stage may provide limited information about immunity at future stages. |
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