Further, deviation among individuals in the quantities of resource they have and in how they allocate these resources to immune function (or not) importantly contributes to immunoheterogeneity (important concept 1, above)

Further, deviation among individuals in the quantities of resource they have and in how they allocate these resources to immune function (or not) importantly contributes to immunoheterogeneity (important concept 1, above). Animals are exposed to and infected with a myriad BH3I-1 of organismsviruses, bacteria, fungi, protozoa, and metazoa, both internally and externally (7). really revealed about how the host immune response actually controlled the parasites life cycle in the wild? Intuitively, we reasoned that laboratory and wild rats were immunologically different: wild animals were leading nerve-racking, resource-limited lives, and so were making low-level, insufficient immune responses against parasites, and that was why infections were so common in the wild. Intuition is one thing; what did the literature say? The answerremarkably little. We could find almost no studies of the immune systems of wild rodents, and the little evidence that existed did not obviously support the hypothesis that wild rodents immune responses were impaired or impoverished. There were rather more studies of laboratory animals, livestock, as well as some wild animals (mainly birds), generally supporting the idea that immune resources were BH3I-1 energetically and resource costly (7), and so one could argue that there were likely to be some resource-based constraints on wild rodents immune responses. But, overall, there was not any obvious information on what immune responses wild rodents were making or how this might explain why infections were so much more common in the wild than laboratory BH3I-1 studies predicted that they would be. This disconnect from your lab to the wild in this hitherto, elegantly simple modeland that so little was known about wild animal immunology in generalspurred our decided look into wild rodents immune responses. Important Concepts in Eco-Immunology Eco-immunology is the study of the immune responses of wild animals in ecologically relevant settings. The broader rationale for studying the immune responses of wild animals is that these responses contribute to wild animals evolutionary fitness (7). Immune systems respond to antigenic stimuli received by an animal and so different individuals within a populace, different populations of a species, and different species, will each have qualitatively and quantitatively different exposure to antigens. Mammalian immune systems are flexible and will respond, in one way or another, to any antigen they encounter. However, selection will take action to optimize the form and nature of these immune responses to maximize Pdgfra fitness, in the context of other selection pressures to which animals are subject (8, 9). This prospects to the first key concept of eco-immunology: immunoheterogeneity, so that different species, different populations within species, or different individuals within populations may differ in the immune responses that they make. These differences will be seen (i) in the resting status of the immune system, observed as the standing immune response, but also (ii) when animals are compared for their responses to a standard antigenic challenge, for example to vaccination. Animals will differ in these regards for both intrinsic reasons (e.g., genetically) and for extrinsic, contextual reasons, for example their different exposure to infection, and other challenges during their lives. It is appropriate that immunoheterogeneity is the first key concept of eco-immunology, because understanding both the greatest and proximate causes of this heterogeneity, and its consequences, is arguably the central question in eco-immunology. Making immune responses is just one aspect of an animals physiological demands. In addition, animals have BH3I-1 to grow, seek, and compete for food and mates, and reproduce. All of these processes require energy. It is obvious that immune responses are energetically demanding (7), as too is growing, foraging, and reproducing. Therefore, with the.