A dark cuticle allows higher investment in immunity, longevity and fecundity in a beetle upon a simulated parasite attack

Krams, Indriķis; Burghardt, Gordon M.; Krams, Ronalds; Trakimas, Giedrius; Kaasik, Ants; Luoto, Severi; Rantala, Markus J.; Krama, Tatjana

doi:10.1007/s00442-016-3654-x

Cited by 28 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 101 publications

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“…Understanding colour production mechanisms may also reveal potential non-visual functions. For example, finding eumelanin in spiders hints at functions like photoprotection (Brenner and Hearing, 2008), microbial resistance (Justyn et al, 2017;Krams et al, 2016) and mechano-enhancement of cuticle sclerization (Riley, 1997). Similarly, Nephila's golden web is sometimes hypothesized to attract insects to webs through visual cues (Craig et al, 1996).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spiders have rich pigmentary and structural colour palettes

Hsiung

Justyn

Blackledge

et al. 2017

Journal of Experimental Biology

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Elucidating the mechanisms of colour production in organisms is important for understanding how selection acts upon a variety of behaviours. Spiders provide many spectacular examples of colours used in courtship, predation, defence and thermoregulation, but are thought to lack many types of pigments common in other animals. Ommochromes, bilins and eumelanin have been identified in spiders, but not carotenoids or melanosomes. Here, we combined optical microscopy, refractive index matching, confocal Raman microspectroscopy and electron microscopy to investigate the basis of several types of colourful patches in spiders. We obtained four major results. First, we show that spiders use carotenoids to produce yellow, suggesting that such colours may be used for conditiondependent courtship signalling. Second, we established the Raman signature spectrum for ommochromes, facilitating the identification of ommochromes in a variety of organisms in the future. Third, we describe a potential new pigmentary-structural colour interaction that is unusual because of the use of long wavelength structural colour in combination with a slightly shorter wavelength pigment in the production of red. Finally, we present the first evidence for the presence of melanosomes in arthropods, using both scanning and transmission electron microscopy, overturning the assumption that melanosomes are a synapomorphy of vertebrates. Our research shows that spiders have a much richer colour production palette than previously thought, and this has implications for colour diversification and function in spiders and other arthropods.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spiders have rich pigmentary and structural colour palettes

Hsiung

Justyn

Blackledge

et al. 2017

Journal of Experimental Biology

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“…This supports a view of microevolutionary independence between larval coloration and fitness‐related growth performance in this species. Although growth performance should provide a satisfactory correlate of fitness for insects like E. atomaria (see Methods), the possibility nevertheless remains that fitness costs of certain coloration traits would appear in specific conditions, in the case of immune challenge in particular (Krams et al ., ). Further research on coloration of lepidopteran larvae should address also this possibility.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Weak and inconsistent associations between melanic darkness and fitness‐related traits in an insect

Sandre

Kaart

Morehouse

et al. 2018

J of Evolutionary Biology

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The idea that the fitness value of body coloration may be affected by biochemically mediated trade‐offs has received much research attention. For example, melanization is believed to interact with other fitness‐related traits via competition for substrates, costs associated with the synthesis of melanin or pleiotropic effects of the involved genes. However, genetic correlations between coloration and fitness‐related traits remain poorly understood. Here, we present a quantitative‐genetic study of a coloration trait correlated to melanin‐based cuticular darkness (‘darkness’, hereafter) in a geometrid moth, Ematurga atomaria. This species has considerable variation in larval appearance. We focus on correlations between larval darkness and fitness‐related growth performance traits. Both a half‐sib analysis and an ‘animal model’ approach revealed moderately high heritabilities of larval darkness and indices of growth performance. Heritability estimates of darkness derived from the animal model were, however, considerably higher than those based on the half‐sib model suggesting that the determination of coloration includes genetic interactions and epigenetic effects. Importantly, on the host plant with the largest sample size, we found no evidence for either genetic or environmental correlations between darkness and growth parameters. On an alternative host plant, there was some indication of positive genetic and negative environmental correlation between these traits. This shows that respective relationships are environment‐specific. Nevertheless, the overall pattern of weak and inconsistent correlations between larval coloration and growth parameters does not support universal trade‐offs between these traits and suggests that physiological costs of producing colour patterns do not necessarily interfere with adaptive evolution of coloration.

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“…Our data thus question the validity of studies that link personality and immune parameters only in non‐challenging conditions without any assessment of the overall capacity of the individual to survive infections (see also Krams et al . ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Personality, immune response and reproductive success: an appraisal of the pace‐of‐life syndrome hypothesis

Monceau

Dechaume-Moncharmont

Moreau

et al. 2017

Journal of Animal Ecology

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The pace-of-life syndrome (POLS) hypothesis is an extended concept of the life-history theory that includes behavioural traits. The studies challenging the POLS hypothesis often focus on the relationships between a single personality trait and a physiological and/or life-history trait. While pathogens represent a major selective pressure, few studies have been interested in testing relationships between behavioural syndrome, and several fitness components including immunity. The aim of this study was to address this question in the mealworm beetle, Tenebrio molitor, a model species in immunity studies. The personality score was estimated from a multidimensional syndrome based of four repeatable behavioural traits. In a first experiment, we investigated its relationship with two measures of fitness (reproduction and survival) and three components of the innate immunity (haemocyte concentration, and levels of activity of the phenoloxidase including the total proenzyme and the naturally activated one) to challenge the POLS hypothesis in T. molitor. Overall, we found a relationship between behavioural syndrome and reproductive success in this species, thus supporting the POLS hypothesis. We also showed a sex-specific relationship between behavioural syndrome and basal immune parameters. In a second experiment, we tested whether this observed relationship with innate immunity could be confirmed in term of differential survival after challenging by entomopathogenic bacteria, Bacillus thuringiensis. In this case, no significant relationship was evidenced. We recommend that future researchers on the POLS should control for differences in evolutionary trajectory between sexes and to pay attention to the choice of the proxy used, especially when looking at immune traits.

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A dark cuticle allows higher investment in immunity, longevity and fecundity in a beetle upon a simulated parasite attack

Cited by 28 publications

References 101 publications

Spiders have rich pigmentary and structural colour palettes

Spiders have rich pigmentary and structural colour palettes

Weak and inconsistent associations between melanic darkness and fitness‐related traits in an insect

Personality, immune response and reproductive success: an appraisal of the pace‐of‐life syndrome hypothesis

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