BioOne.org will be down briefly for maintenance on 17 December 2024 between 18:00-22:00 Pacific Time US. We apologize for any inconvenience.
How to translate text using browser tools
1 February 2010 Genetic Variance and Genotype-by-Environment Interaction of Immune Response in Aedes aegypti (Diptera: Culicidae)
Miguel Moreno-García, Humberto Lanz-Mendoza, Alex Córdoba-aguilar
Author Affiliations +
Abstract

Immune response can be negatively affected by resource limitation, so it is expected that organisms evolve strategies to minimize the impact of this environmental outcome. Phenotypic plasticity in immune response could represent a genetic response to face such situations. We investigated the effects of high and low quality and quantity of food at the larval stage on two important immune components, phenoloxidase activity (PO) and nitric oxide production (NO) measured in adults of the Dengue vector, Aedes aegypti. We reared families to determine the magnitude and pattern of expression of genetic variance, environmental variance and genotype-by-environment interaction (GEI). In addition, we quantified whether there were differences in plastic immune responses in both sexes. Our results indicated additive variance for PO and NO, but rearing environment did not produce differences among individuals. For NO and PO in males, there were large differences among families in plasticity, as indicated by the different slopes produced by each reaction norm. Therefore, there is additive genetic variation in plasticity for NO production and PO activity. One possible interpretation of these results is that different genotypes may be favored to fight pathogens under the different food quality situations. Males and females showed similar overall GEI strategies but there were differences in PO and NO. Males showed a phenotypic correlation between PO and NO, but we did not find genetic correlations between immune parameters in both sexes.

© 2010 Entomological Society of America
Miguel Moreno-García, Humberto Lanz-Mendoza, and Alex Córdoba-aguilar "Genetic Variance and Genotype-by-Environment Interaction of Immune Response in Aedes aegypti (Diptera: Culicidae)," Journal of Medical Entomology 47(2), 111-120, (1 February 2010). https://doi.org/10.1603/ME08267
Received: 6 November 2008; Accepted: 1 November 2009; Published: 1 February 2010
JOURNAL ARTICLE
10 PAGES

This article is only available to subscribers.
It is not available for individual sale.
+ SAVE TO MY LIBRARY

KEYWORDS
Aedes aegypti
immune response
phenotypic plasticity
QUANTITATIVE GENETICS
RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS
Get copyright permission
Back to Top