Maternal effects, malaria infections and the badge size of the house sparrow

作     者：Philip L.G.Birget Stephen D.Larcombe 

作者机构：St Peter’s CollegeUniversity of Oxford Institute of Evolutionary BiologyUniversity of Edinburgh Edward Grey Institute of Field OrnithologyUniversity of Oxford Centre de Recherche de la Tour du Valat Jesus CollegeUniversity of Oxford Institute of Biodiversity Animal Health and Comparative MedicineUniversity of Glasgow 

出 版 物：《Chinese Birds》 (中国鸟类（英文版）)

年 卷 期：2015年第6卷第4期

页      面：215-224页

核心收录：

学科分类：090603[农学-临床兽医学] 09[农学] 0906[农学-兽医学] 

基　　金：jointly funded by the Td V  the EGI and Jesus College  Oxford 

主　　题：Avian malaria Digit ratio Passer domesticus Sexual signals 

摘      要：Background: The evolution of sexual signals is not only determined by immediate sexual selection but also by selection arising from the environment and the interaction with developmental *** this study we aimed to investigate how the badge size of male house sparrows(Passer domesticus) is correlated to avian malaria infections as well as to prenatal testosterone exposure,measured as the 2D:4D digit *** rationale behind this study is that the immunosuppressive effect of maternal testosterone deposition combined with the fitness cost imposed by parasites may cause important trade-offs to the development of secondary sexual ***: Assuming that vector abundance is a key variable associated with infection risk by avian malaria,we caught adult male sparrows from eight different populations in the Camargue,France,four of which were located in a vector-controlled area,and the other four in an untreated *** each bird we measured its badge size,digit ratio and took blood to determine its infections *** used PCR to identify the malaria parasite species and strain that caused the ***: Contrary to our expectation,prevalence of disease did not differ across the vector-treatment regions,with around 80 % of birds being infected in both areas,and those infections were caused largely by a single strain,Plasmodium relictum *** infected birds had a badge size not significantly different from uninfected males,there was a condition-dependent association between badge size,infection status and maternal testosterone ***: This study illustrates that the complexity of temporal and ecological dimensions makes the relationships between disease,testosterone-related traits and secondary sexual signals that have been previously reported less general than thought.