Sexual activity increases resistance against Pseudomonas entomophila in male Drosophila melanogaster

BMC Evolutionary Biology

Nagaraj G Prasad¹  Zeeshan S Ali¹  Vanika Gupta¹ 

[1] Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Mohali, India

关键词: Resistance;    S. succinus;    P. entomophila;    Trade-offs;   

Others  :  1086424
DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2148-13-185

 received in 2013-07-04, accepted in 2013-09-03,  发布年份 2013

【 摘 要 】

Background

Maintenance and deployment cost of immunity is high, therefore, it is expected to trade-off with other high cost traits like sexual activity. Previous studies with Drosophila melanogaster show that male’s ability to clear bacteria decreases with increase in sexual activity. We subjected this idea to test using two pathogens (Pseudomonas entomophila and Staphylococcus succinus) and three different populations of Drosophila melanogaster.

Results

We found that sexual activity enhanced male survivorship in a pathogen specific manner. Sexually active males show higher resistance than virgins upon infection with Pseudomonas entomophila. Interestingly, the beneficial effects of sexual activity increased with time of co-habitation with females and declined when access to females was restricted. We observed no change in male survivorship upon experimentally varying the number of sexual interactions.

Conclusion

Our results show that the sexual activity-immunity trade-off in males cannot be generalised. The trade-off is potentially mediated through complex interactions between the host, pathogen and the environment experienced by the host.

【 授权许可】

   
2013 Gupta et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

【 图 表 】

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