Mating and immunity in invertebrates

Mara K. N. Lawniczak, Andrew I. Barnes, Jon R. Linklater, James M. Boone, Stuart Wigby, Tracey Chapman

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

208 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Mating and immunity are intimately linked to fitness. In both vertebrates and invertebrates, recent investigations into mate choice for immunity, tradeoffs between reproduction and immunity, and the relationships between post-mating processes and immune function have revealed that mating and immunity are also intimately linked to each other. Here, we focus on invertebrates and critically examine the evidence that immunity is under sexual selection, both pre- and post-mating, and explore other hypotheses linking mating and immunity. We find little evidence for a consensus regarding which theories best account for the accumulating empirical data. However, we suggest that progress can quickly be made by exploiting the intrinsic strengths of invertebrate model systems.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)48-55
Number of pages8
JournalTrends in Ecology and Evolution
Volume22
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jan 2007

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