Skip to main content

Research Repository

Advanced Search

A genetics-based approach confirms immune associations with life history across multiple populations of an aquatic vertebrate (Gasterosteus aculeatus)

Whiting, James R.; Magalhaes, Isabel S.; Singkam, Abdul R.; Robertson, Shaun; D'Agostino, Daniele; Bradley, Janette E.; MacColl, Andrew D.C.

A genetics-based approach confirms immune associations with life history across multiple populations of an aquatic vertebrate (Gasterosteus aculeatus) Thumbnail


Authors

James R. Whiting

Isabel S. Magalhaes

Abdul R. Singkam

Daniele D'Agostino

Janette E. Bradley

ANDREW MACCOLL ANDREW.MACCOLL@NOTTINGHAM.AC.UK
Professor of Evolutionary Ecology



Abstract

Understanding how wild immune variation covaries with other traits can reveal how costs and trade?offs shape immune evolution in the wild. Divergent life history strategies may increase or alleviate immune costs, helping shape immune variation in a consistent, testable way. Contrasting hypotheses suggest that shorter life histories may alleviate costs by offsetting them against increased mortality, or increase the effect of costs if immune responses are traded off against development or reproduction. We investigated the evolutionary relationship between life history and immune responses within an island radiation of three?spined stickleback, with discrete populations of varying life histories and parasitism. We sampled two short?lived, two long?lived and an anadromous population using qPCR to quantify current immune profile and RAD?seq data to study the distribution of immune variants within our assay genes and across the genome. Short?lived populations exhibited significantly increased expression of all assay genes, which was accompanied by a strong association with population?level variation in local alleles and divergence in a gene that may be involved in complement pathways. In addition, divergence around the eda gene in anadromous fish is likely associated with increased inflammation. A wider analysis of 15 populations across the island revealed that immune genes across the genome show evidence of having diverged alongside life history strategies. Parasitism and reproductive investment were also important sources of variation for expression, highlighting the caution required when assaying immune responses in the wild. These results provide strong, gene?based support for current hypotheses linking life history and immune variation across multiple populations of a vertebrate model.

Citation

Whiting, J. R., Magalhaes, I. S., Singkam, A. R., Robertson, S., D'Agostino, D., Bradley, J. E., & MacColl, A. D. (2018). A genetics-based approach confirms immune associations with life history across multiple populations of an aquatic vertebrate (Gasterosteus aculeatus). Molecular Ecology, 27(15), 3174-3191. https://doi.org/10.1111/mec.14772

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date May 10, 2018
Online Publication Date Jun 20, 2018
Publication Date Aug 1, 2018
Deposit Date Jul 12, 2018
Publicly Available Date Mar 29, 2024
Journal Molecular Ecology
Print ISSN 0962-1083
Electronic ISSN 1365-294X
Publisher Wiley
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 27
Issue 15
Pages 3174-3191
DOI https://doi.org/10.1111/mec.14772
Public URL https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/940211
Publisher URL https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/mec.14772

Files





You might also like



Downloadable Citations