Ontogeny of constitutive immunity: maternal vs. endogenous influences

Abstract

Summary1. Variation in ontogeny and strength of immune defence mechanisms can be integrally related to variation in life-history strategies and determined by trade-offs during development. However, little is known about the ontogeny of immune function in wild birds, especially in altricial birds and in a comparative context across altricial species with diverse life-history strategies. 2. In this study, we examined the ontogeny of constitutive immunity in a group of 22 passerine species sampled in tropical Venezuela and north temperate Arizona. 3. Our results show activity of constitutive components of the immune defence at 1-3 days posthatching and an increase in immune activity with age. Interspecific variation in immune activity at hatching was mainly explained by extrinsic factors mediated by the mother (egg size and egg temperature), suggesting an important role of maternal effects on offspring immunity at hatching. In contrast, the increase in agglutination activity with age suggests that immune function in older nestlings reflects intrinsic development. The increase in immune activity was greater in species that hatched with lower initial levels, and was somewhat negatively related to growth rate across species. 4. Our results suggest slower intrinsic development of immune function may be compensated by larger maternal contributions. Slower intrinsic development of immune function, in turn, may reflect a trade-off with faster somatic growth. Our study highlights the importance of both maternal (extrinsic) and endogenous (intrinsic) contributions to variation in immune function across altricial species that may reflect an important axis of developmental strategies.

Neonatal body condition, immune responsiveness, and hematocrit predict longevity in a wild bird population

“…Life-history theory posits that, within and among species, investment in immune function should vary with pace of life (Ricklefs and Wikelski 2002, Lee 2006). Specifically, investment in general and inflammatory immune responses should be favored in short-lived species with rapid growth, short generation times, and high juvenile mortality (i.e., type III survivorship), whereas specific and humoral immune responses should be favored in long-lived species with longer development times and type I survivorship (Mauck et al 2005, Tieleman et al 2005, Martin et al 2007, Lee et al 2008, Arriero et al 2013). PHA-induced skin swelling is a very general measure of cutaneous immune responsiveness that encompasses components of both innate and acquired immunity (Martin et al 2006b), although recent work suggests that this response is primarily innate and that the adaptive component contributes much less to this response than traditionally thought (Vinkler et al 2014).…”

Long Antibody Persistence and Transgenerational Transfer of Immunity in a Long-Lived Vertebrate

“…A few studies focusing on the constitutive immunity of short-lived passerine species found evidence of a potential trade-off between the development of immunity and growth rate (Soler et al 2003;Brommer 2004;Mauck et al 2005). Ultimately, increased maternal (exogenous) contributions could be observed as part of compensating mechanisms (Arriero et al 2013). We did not find any evidence of an association between the dynamics of decay of the maternal antibodies throughout the chickrearing period and the individual growth rate of nestlings.…”

Metabolism correlates with variation in post‐natal growth rate among songbirds at three latitudes

“…However, fast growth can also negatively affect a broad array of traits related to organismal quality (Arendt ; Alonso‐Alvarez et al . ; Arriero, Majewska & Martin ) and can reduce longevity (Metcalfe & Monaghan ; Hulbert et al . ; Lee, Monaghan & Metcalfe ; but see Martin et al .…”