naa a22 4500 510780547 CHVBK 20180411083245.0 cr unu---uuuuu 180411e20131201xx s 000 0 eng 10.1007/s11692-013-9231-x doi (NATIONALLICENCE)springer-10.1007/s11692-013-9231-x Obligate Brood Parasites Show More Functionally Effective Innate Immune Responses: An Eco-immunological Hypothesis [Elektronische Daten] [D. Hahn, Scott Summers, Kenneth Genovese, Haiqi He, Michael Kogut] Immune adaptations of obligate brood parasites attracted interest when three New World cowbird species (Passeriformes, Icteridae, genus Molothrus) proved unusually resistant to West Nile virus. We have used cowbirds as models to investigate the eco-immunological hypothesis that species in parasite-rich environments characteristically have enhanced immunity as a life history adaptation. As part of an ongoing program to understand the cowbird immune system, in this study we measured degranulation and oxidative burst, two fundamental responses of the innate immune system. Innate immunity provides non-specific, fast-acting defenses against a variety of invading pathogens, and we hypothesized that innate immunity experiences particularly strong selection in cowbirds, because their life history strategy exposes them to diverse novel and unpredictable parasites. We compared the relative effectiveness of degranulation and oxidative burst responses in two cowbird species and one related, non-parasitic species. Both innate immune defenses were significantly more functionally efficient in the two parasitic cowbird species than in the non-parasitic red-winged blackbird (Icteridae, Agelaius phoeniceus). Additionally, both immune defenses were more functionally efficient in the brown-headed cowbird (M. ater), an extreme host-generalist brood parasite, than in the bronzed cowbird (M. aeneus), a moderate host-specialist with lower exposure to other species and their parasites. Thus the relative effectiveness of these two innate immune responses corresponds to the diversity of parasites in the niche of each species and to their relative resistance to WNV. This study is the first use of these two specialized assays in a comparative immunology study of wild avian species. Springer Science+Business Media New York (outside the USA), 2013 Host-parasite coevolution nationallicence Brood parasite nationallicence Cowbird nationallicence Degranulation nationallicence Eco-immunology nationallicence Parasite-mediated selection nationallicence Innate immunity nationallicence Oxidative burst nationallicence Hahn D. USGS-Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, 12100 Beech Forest Road, 20708, Laurel, MD, USA aut Summers Scott The Nature Conservancy, Fort Hood, 76544, Killeen, TX, USA aut Genovese Kenneth Southern Plains Agricultural Research Center, USDA-ARS, 77845, College Station, TX, USA aut He Haiqi Southern Plains Agricultural Research Center, USDA-ARS, 77845, College Station, TX, USA aut Kogut Michael Southern Plains Agricultural Research Center, USDA-ARS, 77845, College Station, TX, USA aut Evolutionary Biology Springer US; http://www.springer-ny.com 40/4(2013-12-01), 554-561 0071-3260 40:4<554 2013 40 11692 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11692-013-9231-x text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11692-013-9231-x text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Hahn D. USGS-Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, 12100 Beech Forest Road, 20708, Laurel, MD, USA aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Summers Scott The Nature Conservancy, Fort Hood, 76544, Killeen, TX, USA aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Genovese Kenneth Southern Plains Agricultural Research Center, USDA-ARS, 77845, College Station, TX, USA aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- He Haiqi Southern Plains Agricultural Research Center, USDA-ARS, 77845, College Station, TX, USA aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Kogut Michael Southern Plains Agricultural Research Center, USDA-ARS, 77845, College Station, TX, USA aut NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Evolutionary Biology Springer US; http://www.springer-ny.com 40/4(2013-12-01), 554-561 0071-3260 40:4<554 2013 40 11692 Metadata rights reserved Springer special CC-BY-NC licence nationallicence BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-springer