title: No Detectable Trade-Offs Among Immune Function, Fecundity, and Survival via a Juvenile Hormone Analog in the House Cricket.
abstract: Hormones are key regulators of resource allocation among functions and thus play an important role in resource-based trade-offs. The juvenile hormone (JH) is an insect hormone that mediates resource allocation between immunity and life history components. Here, we have tested whether this is the case using the house cricket. We investigated whether increased levels of JH (using methoprene, a JH analog) enable an enhanced survival and fecundity (via egg number) at the cost of reduced hemocyte number (a trait that is associated with immune response in insects) in the house cricket, Acheta domesticus L. We had three groups of adult crickets of both sexes: experimental (methoprene and acetone), positive control (methoprene), and negative control (no manipulation). Prior to and after experimental treatments, we counted the number of hemocytes (for the case of both sexes) and recorded the number of eggs laid and survival of females after the manipulation. There was no difference in hemocyte number, egg number, and survival. These results do not support a JH-mediated trade-off among immune ability, survival, and fecundity. We provide arguments to explain the lack of JH-mediated trade-offs in the house cricket.
authors.affiliation: Depto de Ecología Evolutiva, Instituto de Ecología, Univ Nacional Autónoma de México, Apdo. Postal 70-275, Ciudad Universitaria, 04510, México, DF, Mexico.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Nava-Sánchez
authors.affiliation: Depto de Ecología Evolutiva, Instituto de Ecología, Univ Nacional Autónoma de México, Apdo. Postal 70-275, Ciudad Universitaria, 04510, México, DF, Mexico.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Munguía-Steyer
authors.affiliation: Depto de Ecología Evolutiva, Instituto de Ecología, Univ Nacional Autónoma de México, Apdo. Postal 70-275, Ciudad Universitaria, 04510, México, DF, Mexico. acordoba@ecologia.unam.mx.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Córdoba-Aguilar
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005260:Female; D005298:Fertility; D006135:Gryllidae / Q000276:immunology*; D007605:Juvenile Hormones / Q000502:physiology*; D008018:Life Cycle Stages; D008297:Male; D008726:Methoprene / Q000494:pharmacology*
chemical_list: D007605:Juvenile Hormones; D008726:Methoprene
keywords: Acheta domesticus; hemocytes; immune response; methoprene