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Effects of inbreeding on potential and realized immune responses in Tenebrio molitor

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 April 2011

MARKUS J. RANTALA ,
HEIDI VIITANIEMI  and
DEREK A. ROFF
MARKUS J. RANTALA*
Affiliation:
Department of Biology, Section of Ecology, University of Turku, FIN-20014 Turku, Finland
HEIDI VIITANIEMI
Affiliation:
Department of Biology, Section of Ecology, University of Turku, FIN-20014 Turku, Finland
DEREK A. ROFF
Affiliation:
Department of Biology, University of California, Riverside, CA 92521, USA
*
*Corresponding author: Department of Biology, Section of Ecology, University of Turku, FIN-20014 Turku, Finland. E-mail: [email protected]
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Summary

Although numerous studies on vertebrates suggest that inbreeding reduces their resistance against parasites and pathogens, studies in insects have found contradictory evidence. In this study we tested the effect of 1 generation of brother–sister mating (inbreeding) on potential and realized immune responses and other life-history traits in Tenebrio molitor. We found that inbreeding reduced adult mass, pre-adult survival and increased development time, suggesting that inbreeding reduced the condition of the adults and thus potentially made them more susceptible to physiological stress. However, we found no significant effect of inbreeding on the potential immune response (encapsulation response), but inbreeding reduced the realized immune response (resistance against the entomopathogenic fungi, Beauveria bassiana). There was a significant family effect on encapsulation response, but no family effect on the resistance against the entomopathogenic fungi. Given that this latter trait showed significant inbreeding depression and that the sample size for the family-effect analysis was small it is likely that the lack of a significant family effect is due to reduced statistical power, rather than the lack of a heritable basis to the trait. Our study highlights the importance of using pathogens and parasites in immunoecological studies.

Keywords

encapsulationBeauveria bassianaheterozygosityhomozygosityimmunocompetence
Type
Research Article
Information
Parasitology , Volume 138 , Issue 7 , June 2011 , pp. 906 - 912
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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