Immune activation reduces sperm quality in the great tit.

Mounting an immune response against pathogens incurs costs to organisms by its effects on important life-history traits, such as reproductive investment and survival. As shown recently, immune activation produces large amounts of reactive species and is suggested to induce oxidative stress. Sperm ar...

Descripción completa

Guardado en:

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales:	Sylvain Losdat, Heinz Richner, Jonathan D Blount, Fabrice Helfenstein
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2011
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/77da11270f924f2e9217cccf6288d441
Etiquetas:	Agregar Etiqueta Sin Etiquetas, Sea el primero en etiquetar este registro!

id	oai:doaj.org-article:77da11270f924f2e9217cccf6288d441
record_format	dspace
spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:77da11270f924f2e9217cccf6288d4412021-11-18T06:50:24ZImmune activation reduces sperm quality in the great tit.1932-620310.1371/journal.pone.0022221https://doaj.org/article/77da11270f924f2e9217cccf6288d4412011-01-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmid/21765955/?tool=EBIhttps://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203Mounting an immune response against pathogens incurs costs to organisms by its effects on important life-history traits, such as reproductive investment and survival. As shown recently, immune activation produces large amounts of reactive species and is suggested to induce oxidative stress. Sperm are highly susceptible to oxidative stress, which can negatively impact sperm function and ultimately male fertilizing efficiency. Here we address the question as to whether mounting an immune response affects sperm quality through the damaging effects of oxidative stress. It has been demonstrated recently in birds that carotenoid-based ornaments can be reliable signals of a male's ability to protect sperm from oxidative damage. In a full-factorial design, we immune-challenged great tit males while simultaneously increasing their vitamin E availability, and assessed the effect on sperm quality and oxidative damage. We conducted this experiment in a natural population and tested the males' response to the experimental treatment in relation to their carotenoid-based breast coloration, a condition-dependent trait. Immune activation induced a steeper decline in sperm swimming velocity, thus highlighting the potential costs of an induced immune response on sperm competitive ability and fertilizing efficiency. We found sperm oxidative damage to be negatively correlated with sperm swimming velocity. However, blood resistance to a free-radical attack (a measure of somatic antioxidant capacity) as well as plasma and sperm levels of oxidative damage (lipid peroxidation) remained unaffected, thus suggesting that the observed effect did not arise through oxidative stress. Towards the end of their breeding cycle, swimming velocity of sperm of more intensely colored males was higher, which has important implications for the evolution of mate choice and multiple mating in females because females may accrue both direct and indirect benefits by mating with males having better quality sperm.Sylvain LosdatHeinz RichnerJonathan D BlountFabrice HelfensteinPublic Library of Science (PLoS)articleMedicineRScienceQENPLoS ONE, Vol 6, Iss 7, p e22221 (2011)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Sylvain Losdat Heinz Richner Jonathan D Blount Fabrice Helfenstein Immune activation reduces sperm quality in the great tit.
description	Mounting an immune response against pathogens incurs costs to organisms by its effects on important life-history traits, such as reproductive investment and survival. As shown recently, immune activation produces large amounts of reactive species and is suggested to induce oxidative stress. Sperm are highly susceptible to oxidative stress, which can negatively impact sperm function and ultimately male fertilizing efficiency. Here we address the question as to whether mounting an immune response affects sperm quality through the damaging effects of oxidative stress. It has been demonstrated recently in birds that carotenoid-based ornaments can be reliable signals of a male's ability to protect sperm from oxidative damage. In a full-factorial design, we immune-challenged great tit males while simultaneously increasing their vitamin E availability, and assessed the effect on sperm quality and oxidative damage. We conducted this experiment in a natural population and tested the males' response to the experimental treatment in relation to their carotenoid-based breast coloration, a condition-dependent trait. Immune activation induced a steeper decline in sperm swimming velocity, thus highlighting the potential costs of an induced immune response on sperm competitive ability and fertilizing efficiency. We found sperm oxidative damage to be negatively correlated with sperm swimming velocity. However, blood resistance to a free-radical attack (a measure of somatic antioxidant capacity) as well as plasma and sperm levels of oxidative damage (lipid peroxidation) remained unaffected, thus suggesting that the observed effect did not arise through oxidative stress. Towards the end of their breeding cycle, swimming velocity of sperm of more intensely colored males was higher, which has important implications for the evolution of mate choice and multiple mating in females because females may accrue both direct and indirect benefits by mating with males having better quality sperm.
format	article
author	Sylvain Losdat Heinz Richner Jonathan D Blount Fabrice Helfenstein
author_facet	Sylvain Losdat Heinz Richner Jonathan D Blount Fabrice Helfenstein
author_sort	Sylvain Losdat
title	Immune activation reduces sperm quality in the great tit.
title_short	Immune activation reduces sperm quality in the great tit.
title_full	Immune activation reduces sperm quality in the great tit.
title_fullStr	Immune activation reduces sperm quality in the great tit.
title_full_unstemmed	Immune activation reduces sperm quality in the great tit.
title_sort	immune activation reduces sperm quality in the great tit.
publisher	Public Library of Science (PLoS)
publishDate	2011
url	https://doaj.org/article/77da11270f924f2e9217cccf6288d441
work_keys_str_mv	AT sylvainlosdat immuneactivationreducesspermqualityinthegreattit AT heinzrichner immuneactivationreducesspermqualityinthegreattit AT jonathandblount immuneactivationreducesspermqualityinthegreattit AT fabricehelfenstein immuneactivationreducesspermqualityinthegreattit
_version_	1718424301877592064

Immune activation reduces sperm quality in the great tit.

Ejemplares similares