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Is there sex-biased resistance and tolerance in Mediterranean wood mouse (Apodemus sylvaticus) populations facing multiple helminth infections?

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Abstract

Sex-biased parasitism is rarely investigated in relation to host tolerance and resistance, which are two defense strategies hosts can adopt when challenged by parasites. Health or fitness deteriorations in less tolerant individuals with increasing parasite burden would be faster than those in more tolerant ones. Hence, the body condition and reproductive potential of an infected individual host can be considered proxies for tolerance to parasitism. We studied Mediterranean populations of the wood mouse (Apodemus sylvaticus) and its helminth parasites. We assessed their resistance using the phytohemagglutinin test and spleen size, and their tolerance using body condition in males and females and testes mass in males. In order to avoid spurious correlations, we took into account the phylogeographic structure of the Mediterranean wood mouse populations. We used a mixed model adapted from the animal model used in quantitative genetics. While helminth infection did not differ between the two sexes, females and males differed in their measured defenses. Females seem to invest more in immune defense with increasing risk of parasite diversity, but also appear to be potentially more tolerant of parasitic diversity. These results suggest the existence of sexual differences in resistance and tolerance, and that measurements of parasitic loads alone could be insufficient to detect any underlying sexual differences in the two strategies that have evolved in response to multiple parasitic attacks.

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Acknowledgments

We thank two anonymous referees for their helpful comments. This is publication no. 758 of the Mitrani Department of Desert Ecology. A. Ribas was partially supported by “Generalitat de Catalunya” 2009SGR403. JGB is presently a postdoctoral fellow with FWO.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut des Sciences de l’Evolution, CNRS-IRD-UM2, CC65, Université de Montpellier 2, 34095, Montpellier, France

    Frédéric Bordes, Nicolas Ponlet & Serge Morand

  2. UR22 AGIRs, CIRAD, Campus International de Baillarguet, 34398, Montpellier, France

    Serge Morand

  3. Evolutionary Ecology Group, University of Antwerp, Groenenborgerlaan 171, 2020, Antwerp, Belgium

    Joëlle Goüy de Bellocq

  4. Department of Population Biology, Institute of Vertebrate Biology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Brno, Czech Republic

    Joëlle Goüy de Bellocq

  5. Laboratory of Parasitology, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Barcelona, Avda Diagonal s/n, 08028, Barcelona, Spain

    Alexis Ribas

  6. Mitrani Department of Desert Ecology, Institute for Dryland Environmental Research, Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Sede-Boqer Campus, 84990, Midreshet Ben-Gurion, Israel

    Boris R. Krasnov

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  1. Frédéric Bordes
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  2. Nicolas Ponlet
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  3. Joëlle Goüy de Bellocq
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  4. Alexis Ribas
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  5. Boris R. Krasnov
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  6. Serge Morand
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Correspondence to Serge Morand.

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Communicated by Janne Sundell.

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Bordes, F., Ponlet, N., de Bellocq, J.G. et al. Is there sex-biased resistance and tolerance in Mediterranean wood mouse (Apodemus sylvaticus) populations facing multiple helminth infections?. Oecologia 170, 123–135 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-012-2300-5

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