Links between reproduction and immunity in two sympatric wild marine fishes

According to life-history theory, limited resources can result in trade-offs between costly physiological functions. Particularly, it can be expected that individuals present lower immune function, or an alternative immunological strategy, during their reproductive compared to their non-reproductive...

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Veröffentlicht in:Comparative biochemistry and physiology. Part A, Molecular & integrative physiology Molecular & integrative physiology, 2024-01, Vol.287, p.111538, Article 111538
Hauptverfasser: Sueiro, María Cruz, Awruch, Cynthia A., Somoza, Gustavo M., Svagelj, Walter S., Palacios, María G.
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Sprache:eng
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Zusammenfassung:According to life-history theory, limited resources can result in trade-offs between costly physiological functions. Particularly, it can be expected that individuals present lower immune function, or an alternative immunological strategy, during their reproductive compared to their non-reproductive season. Here we investigate the link between reproduction and immunity in two sympatric marine fish species, the rockfish Sebastes oculatus and the sandperch Pinguipes brasilianus. The results showed lower values of total white blood cells and spleen index, but higher levels of natural antibodies (only in females) in reproductive rockfish compared to non-reproductive ones. On the other hand, reproductively active sandperch showed lower levels of natural antibodies and a higher neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio and spleen index (only in males), compared to non-reproductive ones. Also, negative correlations between reproductive and immune parameters were observed in female rockfish at the individual level, but not in sandperch. Our results are consistent with the presence of different immunological strategies in reproductive and non-reproductive periods, with patterns that appear to be species-specific. This specificity suggests that various aspects of immunity might respond differentially to resource limitation, which could be associated with the disparate life-history strategies of the studied species. Alternatively, though not exclusively, the observed patterns could be driven by abiotic factors that characterize the reproductive season of each species (i.e., winter for rockfish, summer for sandperch). Our study contributes to ecoimmunological knowledge on free-living fish and highlights that detection of trade-offs can depend on the combination of study species, season, sex, and specific immune components measured. [Display omitted] •The link between reproduction and immunity in two sympatric marine fish species was investigated.•Depending on fish species, total white blood cells, spleen index, natural antibodies and neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio differed between reproductive and non-reproductive individuals.•Our results suggest the existence of species-specific immunological strategies in reproductive versus non-reproductive periods and highlight the immune component-specificity of trade-offs between reproduction and immune function.
ISSN:1095-6433
1531-4332
1531-4332
DOI:10.1016/j.cbpa.2023.111538