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1 October 2004 GENETIC CORRELATION BETWEEN MELANIZATION AND ANTIBACTERIAL IMMUNE RESPONSES IN A NATURAL POPULATION OF THE MALARIA VECTOR ANOPHELES GAMBIAE
Louis Lambrechts, John M. Vulule, Jacob C. Koella
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Abstract

The immune system of invertebrates can mount different responses, including melanotic encapsulation and several antibacterial defense mechanisms. Variation of the efficacies of these responses is generally considered to be a product of the evolutionary pressure on each response due to infection by parasites. However, potential interactions and trade-offs among the different responses of the immune system could constrain the evolutionary potential of each response. In a natural population of the mosquito Anopheles gambiae, we measured the genetic association between the melanization response and an antibacterial response in two environmental qualities (well-fed and undernourished larvae). In both environments the two immune responses were positively genetically correlated: in full-sib families that were most likely to melanize a bead, injected bacteria were most likely to be cleared. Thus, our data do not support the idea of a trade-off among different outcomes of the invertebrate immune system, but rather that some families are overall immunologically superior to others.

Louis Lambrechts, John M. Vulule, and Jacob C. Koella "GENETIC CORRELATION BETWEEN MELANIZATION AND ANTIBACTERIAL IMMUNE RESPONSES IN A NATURAL POPULATION OF THE MALARIA VECTOR ANOPHELES GAMBIAE," Evolution 58(10), 2377-2381, (1 October 2004). https://doi.org/10.1554/04-269
Received: 27 April 2004; Accepted: 2 July 2004; Published: 1 October 2004
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KEYWORDS
Anopheles gambiae
GENETIC CORRELATION
insect immunity
melanization
trade-offs
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