IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/beheco/v23y2012i1p168-173..html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Resource allocation trade-off between sperm quality and immunity in the field cricket, Teleogryllus oceanicus

Author

Listed:
  • Leigh W. Simmons

Abstract

Mounting an immune response is costly, requiring an animal to draw on its limited nutrient pool at a cost to future growth and reproduction. A trade-off between immunity and reproduction is central to parasite-mediated models of sexual selection. In this study, I examine a prediction of postcopulatory models of parasite-mediated sexual selection that males face a nutrient allocation trade-off between immunity and ejaculate quality. I experimentally induced an antibacterial immune response in juvenile crickets held on either a restricted diet or allowed ad libitum access to food. Immune-challenged crickets took longer to reach adult eclosion, and crickets on a restricted diet had a greatly reduced ability to encapsulate a foreign body. Neither juvenile immune challenge nor diet influenced adult antibacterial activity. Crickets with restricted access to food had reduced sperm viability after upregulation of their antibacterial immunity when juvenile, whereas crickets fed ad libitum did not suffer a cost of reduced sperm viability. This finding provides evidence for a nutrient allocation trade-off between antibacterial immunity and ejaculate quality. However, the genetic correlation between these traits is negative, rendering any indirect genetic benefits from sperm competition unlikely.

Suggested Citation

  • Leigh W. Simmons, 2012. "Resource allocation trade-off between sperm quality and immunity in the field cricket, Teleogryllus oceanicus," Behavioral Ecology, International Society for Behavioral Ecology, vol. 23(1), pages 168-173.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:beheco:v:23:y:2012:i:1:p:168-173.
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/beheco/arr170
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Leigh W. Simmons & Maxine Beveridge, 2010. "The strength of postcopulatory sexual selection within natural populations of field crickets," Behavioral Ecology, International Society for Behavioral Ecology, vol. 21(6), pages 1179-1185.
    2. Kenneth M. Fedorka & Timothy A. Mousseau, 2007. "Immune system activation affects male sexual signal and reproductive potential in crickets," Behavioral Ecology, International Society for Behavioral Ecology, vol. 18(1), pages 231-235, January.
    3. Jari J. Ahtiainen & Rauno V. Alatalo & Raine Kortet & Markus J. Rantala, 2004. "Sexual advertisement and immune function in an arachnid species (Lycosidae)," Behavioral Ecology, International Society for Behavioral Ecology, vol. 15(4), pages 602-606, July.
    4. Philip A. Skau & Ivar Folstad, 2003. "Do bacterial infections cause reduced ejaculate quality? A meta-analysis of antibiotic treatment of male infertility," Behavioral Ecology, International Society for Behavioral Ecology, vol. 14(1), pages 40-47, January.
    5. Philip A. Skau & Ivar Folstad, 2005. "Does immunity regulate ejaculate quality and fertility in humans?," Behavioral Ecology, International Society for Behavioral Ecology, vol. 16(2), pages 410-416, March.
    6. Angela M. Kerr & Susan N. Gershman & Scott K. Sakaluk, 2010. "Experimentally induced spermatophore production and immune responses reveal a trade-off in crickets," Behavioral Ecology, International Society for Behavioral Ecology, vol. 21(3), pages 647-654.
    7. Leigh W. Simmons & Robin M. Tinghitella & Marlene Zuk, 2010. "Quantitative genetic variation in courtship song and its covariation with immune function and sperm quality in the field cricket Teleogryllus oceanicus," Behavioral Ecology, International Society for Behavioral Ecology, vol. 21(6), pages 1330-1336.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Brian Gray & Leigh W. Simmons, 2013. "Acoustic cues alter perceived sperm competition risk in the field cricket Teleogryllus oceanicus," Behavioral Ecology, International Society for Behavioral Ecology, vol. 24(4), pages 982-986.
    2. Nicola-Anne J Rutkowski & Yong Zhi Foo & Therésa M Jones & Kathryn B McNamara, 2023. "Age, but not an immune challenge, triggers terminal investment in the Pacific field cricket, Teleogryllus oceanicus," Behavioral Ecology, International Society for Behavioral Ecology, vol. 34(3), pages 468-479.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. L. Figenschou & I. Folstad & G. Rudolfsen & S.A. Hanssen & R. Kortet & P.A. Skau & J.E. Killie & I.C. Oskam & H. Strand, 2013. "The relative effect of parasites and social status on sperm traits in Arctic charr," Behavioral Ecology, International Society for Behavioral Ecology, vol. 24(2), pages 497-504.
    2. Nicola-Anne J Rutkowski & Yong Zhi Foo & Therésa M Jones & Kathryn B McNamara, 2023. "Age, but not an immune challenge, triggers terminal investment in the Pacific field cricket, Teleogryllus oceanicus," Behavioral Ecology, International Society for Behavioral Ecology, vol. 34(3), pages 468-479.
    3. Brian Gray & Leigh W. Simmons, 2013. "Acoustic cues alter perceived sperm competition risk in the field cricket Teleogryllus oceanicus," Behavioral Ecology, International Society for Behavioral Ecology, vol. 24(4), pages 982-986.
    4. Malika Ihle & Bart Kempenaers & Wolfgang Forstmeier, 2013. "Does hatching failure breed infidelity?," Behavioral Ecology, International Society for Behavioral Ecology, vol. 24(1), pages 119-127.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:oup:beheco:v:23:y:2012:i:1:p:168-173.. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Oxford University Press (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://academic.oup.com/beheco .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.