Skip to main content

Lund University Publications

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

Investment in immune defense is linked to pace of life in house sparrows

Martin II, LB ; Hasselquist, Dennis LU and Wikelski, M (2006) In Oecologia 147(4). p.565-575
Abstract
The evidence for a relationship between life history and immune defense is equivocal, although the basic premise is intuitively appealing: animals that live short lives and reproduce early and rapidly should not waste resources on defenses they might never use. One possible reason for a lack of strong support for this hypothesis could be the inherent complexity of the vertebrate immune system. Indeed, different components of the vertebrate immune system vary in their relative costs and benefits, and therefore only some defenses may complement variation in species' life history. To address this hypothesis, we compared multiple types of immune activity between two populations of house sparrows (Passer domesticus) with distinct life... (More)
The evidence for a relationship between life history and immune defense is equivocal, although the basic premise is intuitively appealing: animals that live short lives and reproduce early and rapidly should not waste resources on defenses they might never use. One possible reason for a lack of strong support for this hypothesis could be the inherent complexity of the vertebrate immune system. Indeed, different components of the vertebrate immune system vary in their relative costs and benefits, and therefore only some defenses may complement variation in species' life history. To address this hypothesis, we compared multiple types of immune activity between two populations of house sparrows (Passer domesticus) with distinct life histories, one from Colon, Panama, which lay small clutches over an extended breeding season (i.e., slow-living) and the other from Princeton, New Jersey, which lay larger clutches in a smaller window of time (i.e., fast-living). We expected (a) that more costly types of immune defenses would be stronger in the slow-living sparrows and (2) that the slow-living sparrows would show a greater increase in whole-body energy expenditure after immune challenge compared to their fast-living counterparts. We found that secondary antibody response to a novel antigen was more rapid and energetic investment in immune activity was greater in slow-living sparrows. However, cell-mediated immune activity was more robust in fast-living sparrows, and other measures of defense were not different between populations. These results provide partial support for a relationship between life history and immune defense in this species, but they also indicate that this relationship is not clear-cut. Further study is necessary to identify the influence of other factors, particular pathogen environment during development, on the architecture of the immune system of wild animals. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Oecologia
volume
147
issue
4
pages
565 - 575
publisher
Springer
external identifiers
  • wos:000236207900001
  • pmid:16450181
  • scopus:33645111683
ISSN
1432-1939
DOI
10.1007/s00442-005-0314-y
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
4b76a74e-5090-4400-9f46-49fe17aae912 (old id 159400)
date added to LUP
2016-04-01 16:45:10
date last changed
2024-05-11 07:24:34
@article{4b76a74e-5090-4400-9f46-49fe17aae912,
  abstract     = {{The evidence for a relationship between life history and immune defense is equivocal, although the basic premise is intuitively appealing: animals that live short lives and reproduce early and rapidly should not waste resources on defenses they might never use. One possible reason for a lack of strong support for this hypothesis could be the inherent complexity of the vertebrate immune system. Indeed, different components of the vertebrate immune system vary in their relative costs and benefits, and therefore only some defenses may complement variation in species' life history. To address this hypothesis, we compared multiple types of immune activity between two populations of house sparrows (Passer domesticus) with distinct life histories, one from Colon, Panama, which lay small clutches over an extended breeding season (i.e., slow-living) and the other from Princeton, New Jersey, which lay larger clutches in a smaller window of time (i.e., fast-living). We expected (a) that more costly types of immune defenses would be stronger in the slow-living sparrows and (2) that the slow-living sparrows would show a greater increase in whole-body energy expenditure after immune challenge compared to their fast-living counterparts. We found that secondary antibody response to a novel antigen was more rapid and energetic investment in immune activity was greater in slow-living sparrows. However, cell-mediated immune activity was more robust in fast-living sparrows, and other measures of defense were not different between populations. These results provide partial support for a relationship between life history and immune defense in this species, but they also indicate that this relationship is not clear-cut. Further study is necessary to identify the influence of other factors, particular pathogen environment during development, on the architecture of the immune system of wild animals.}},
  author       = {{Martin II, LB and Hasselquist, Dennis and Wikelski, M}},
  issn         = {{1432-1939}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{4}},
  pages        = {{565--575}},
  publisher    = {{Springer}},
  series       = {{Oecologia}},
  title        = {{Investment in immune defense is linked to pace of life in house sparrows}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00442-005-0314-y}},
  doi          = {{10.1007/s00442-005-0314-y}},
  volume       = {{147}},
  year         = {{2006}},
}