No simple answers for ecological immunology: relationships among immune indices at the individual level break down at the species level in waterfowl.

ABSTRACT: Understanding immune function in the context of other life-history traits is crucial to understand the evolution of life histories, at both the individual and species levels. As the interest in assessing immune function for these comparative purposes grows, an important question remains unanswered: can immune function be broadly characterized using one or two simple measures? Often, interpretation of individual assays is ambiguous and relationships among different measures of immune function remain poorly understood. Thus, we employed five protocols to measure 13 variables of immune function in ten species of waterfowl (Anseriformes). All assays were based on a single blood sample subdivided into leukocyte (blood smear) and plasma (frozen until analysis) components. All assays were run usi

SUBMITTER: Matson KD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1560229 | biostudies-literature | 2006 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature