A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal
No firm rvidence of immunological costs of insect oviposition and copulation: – a test with dragonflies (Zygoptera)
Subtitle: a test with dragonflies (Zygoptera)
Authors: Cordoba-Aguilar A, Ruiz-Silva D, Gonzalez-Tokman D, Contreras-Garduno J, Peretti A, Moreno-Garcia MA, Rantala MJ, Koskimaki J, Kortet R, Suhonen J
Publisher: SOC INT ODONATOLOGICA
Publication year: 2012
Journal: Odonatologica
Journal name in source: ODONATOLOGICA
Journal acronym: ODONATOLOGICA
Volume: 41
Issue: 1
First page : 7
Last page: 15
Number of pages: 9
ISSN: 0375-0183
Abstract
The immune response is a costly trait as investment in immunity is frequently traded off against life history components. In insects, for example, experimental tests have provided evidence that oviposition and copulatory activities impair immune ability in the form of encapsulation ability. Here such tests are replicated by using four zygopteran spp., viz. Argia joergenseni, Calopteryx splendens, C Virgo and Hetaerina americana, having encapsulation, phenoloxidase and nitric oxide activity three key components in the insect immune response as dependent variables. The results provide no consistent results. Only in A. joergenseni there was any evidence of oviposition activity (or, in the case of H. americana, submergence) affecting encapsulation, but neither in C. splendens nor in H. americana did copulation have any such effect. In H. americana, nitric oxide activity was lower in female female that had been submerged but there was no effect on phenoloxidase activity. Thus, former observations indicating that oviposition and copulation negatively affect the immune response, cannot be generalized.
The immune response is a costly trait as investment in immunity is frequently traded off against life history components. In insects, for example, experimental tests have provided evidence that oviposition and copulatory activities impair immune ability in the form of encapsulation ability. Here such tests are replicated by using four zygopteran spp., viz. Argia joergenseni, Calopteryx splendens, C Virgo and Hetaerina americana, having encapsulation, phenoloxidase and nitric oxide activity three key components in the insect immune response as dependent variables. The results provide no consistent results. Only in A. joergenseni there was any evidence of oviposition activity (or, in the case of H. americana, submergence) affecting encapsulation, but neither in C. splendens nor in H. americana did copulation have any such effect. In H. americana, nitric oxide activity was lower in female female that had been submerged but there was no effect on phenoloxidase activity. Thus, former observations indicating that oviposition and copulation negatively affect the immune response, cannot be generalized.
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