Fitness costs associated with mounting a social immune response.
Social immune systems comprise immune defences mounted by individuals for the benefit of others (sensuCotter & Kilner 2010a). Just as with other forms of immunity, mounting a social immune response is expected to be costly but so far these fitness costs are unknown. We measured the costs of social immunity in a sub-social burying beetle, a species in which two or more adults defend a carrion breeding resource for their young by smearing the flesh with antibacterial anal exudates. Our experiments on widowed females reveal that a bacterial challenge to the breeding resource upregulates the antibacterial activity of a female's exudates, and this subsequently reduces her lifetime reproductive success. We suggest that the costliness of social immunity is a source of evolutionary conflict between breeding adults on a carcass, and that the phoretic communities that the beetles transport between carrion may assist the beetle by offsetting these costs.
Cotter
S C
SC
Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EJ, UK. sc570@cam.ac.uk
Topham
E
E
Price
A J P
AJ
Kilner
R M
RM
D000818:Animals; D000890:Anti-Infective Agents / Q000378:metabolism*; D001947:Breeding; D001517:Coleoptera / Q000382:microbiology / Q000502:physiology*; D005122:Exudates and Transudates / Q000502:physiology; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005260:Female; D005298:Fertility; D032521:Immunity, Herd / Q000502:physiology*; D007814:Larva / Q000502:physiology; D008297:Male; D008826:Microbial Sensitivity Tests; D012726:Sexual Behavior, Animal; D012919:Social Behavior
D000890:Anti-Infective Agents