Inferring the energy cost of resistance to parasitic infection and its link to a trade-off.

ABSTRACT:

Background

In infected hosts, immune responses trigger a systemic energy reallocation away from energy storage and growth, to fuel a costly defense program. The exact energy costs of immune defense are however unknown in general. Life history theory predicts that such costs underpin trade-offs between host disease resistance and other fitness related traits, yet this has been seldom assessed. Here we investigate immune energy cost induced by infection, and their potential link to a trade-off between host resistance and fat storage that we previously exposed in sheep divergently selected for resistance to a pathogenic helminth.

Results

To this purpose, we developed a mathematical model of host-parasite interaction featuring individual changes in energy allocation over the cou

SUBMITTER: Douhard F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11776327 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature