Recovery and immune priming modulate the evolutionary trajectory of infection-induced reproductive strategies
Authored by H Luu, A T Tate
Date Published: 2017
DOI: 10.1111/jeb.13138
Sponsors:
United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)
Platforms:
NetLogo
Model Documentation:
Other Narrative
Flow charts
Mathematical description
Model Code URLs:
https://onlinelibrary-wiley-com.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/action/downloadSupplement?doi=10.1111%2Fjeb.13138&file=jeb13138-sup-0002-File.nlogo
Abstract
In response to parasite exposure, organisms from a variety of taxa
undergo a shift in reproductive investment that may trade off with other
life-history traits including survival and immunity. By suppressing
reproduction in favour of somatic and immunological maintenance, hosts
can enhance the probability of survival and recovery from infection. By
plastically enhancing reproduction through terminal investment, on the
other hand, hosts under the threat of disease-induced mortality could
enhance their lifetime reproductive fitness through reproduction rather
than survival. However, we know little about the evolution of these
strategies, particularly when hosts can recover and even bequeath
protection to their offspring. In this study, we develop a stochastic
agent-based model that competes somatic maintenance and terminal
investment strategies as they trade off differentially with lifespan,
parasite resistance, recovery and transgenerational immune priming. Our
results suggest that a trade-off between reproduction and recovery can
drive directional selection for either terminal investment or somatic
maintenance, depending on the cost of reproduction to lifespan. However,
some conditions, such as low virulence with a high cost of reproduction
to lifespan, can favour diversifying selection for the coexistence of
both strategies. The introduction of transgenerational priming into the
model favours terminal investment when all strategies are equally likely
to produce primed offspring, but favours somatic maintenance if it
confers even a slight priming advantage over terminal investment. Our
results suggest that both immune priming and recovery may modulate the
evolution of reproductive shift diversity and magnitude upon exposure to
parasites.
Tags
activation
phenotypic plasticity
investment
Consequences
Virulence
Life-history evolution
Fecundity
Crickets
Bet-hedging
Fecundity compensation
Immune priming
Life-history
trade-offs
Somatic maintenance
Terminal
investment
Beetle