Abstract
Immune response is evolutionary costly, but it is not clear whether these costs affect energetic expenditure (short-term cost), growth (medium-term cost), or reproduction (long-term cost). We tested the costs of immune memory in Tenebrio molitor against Metarhizium brunneum. To do this, we used two groups of T. molitor larvae: (a) the control group, which was injected first with Tween solution and 10 days later with M. brunneum and (b) the memory group, which was first injected with M. brunneum and 10 days later with M. brunneum. Compared to controls, larvae of the memory group were more likely to survive, but they also had an increased metabolic rate (CO2 production), spent a long time before becoming pupae, and had a shorter time from pupae to adulthood. In the adult stage, control females preferred control males, but there was no significant difference in the preference of memory females. Finally, control and memory males preferred control females. These results confirm that immune memory has costs in terms of energetic expenditure, growth, and reproduction. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first experimental demonstration that immune memory in larvae is traded-off with adult sexual selection involving mate choice.
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Three anonymous reviewers and editors substantially improved this paper. Ana Guerrero Garcia y Guillermo Hernández Robles provided help with some experiments. T.T.M.L acknowledges the support by the Posgrado en Ciencias Biológicas, UNAM, México.
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The study received funding from PAPIIT (IA207716 and IA205318), UNAM.
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Contreras-Garduño, J., Méndez-López, T.T., Patiño-Morales, A. et al. The costs of the immune memory within generations. Sci Nat 106, 59 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-019-1657-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-019-1657-2