Meeting Abstract

S9.8  Tuesday, Jan. 6  Ecoimmunology: The Organism in Context FRENCH, S.S.*; MOORE, M.C.; DEMAS, G.E.; Indiana University; Arizona State University; Indiana University sufrench@indiana.edu

A major challenge in integrative biology is understanding the mechanisms by which organisms regulate trade-offs among various functions competing for limiting resources. Key among these competing processes is the production of offspring and health maintenance, and optimizing both appears to be difficult. The hormonal, behavioral, and energetic changes that occur during a reproductive bought can greatly influence an organisms immune system and likewise investing in immunological defenses can impair reproductive function. However, all of these interactions are greatly dependent upon context. Here we take a comparative look at interactions between the reproductive and immune systems, including current immunological approaches and how similar studies can reveal vastly disparate results. Specifically, studies in reptiles and mammals will be presented, investigating the effects of food availability, fat reserves, explicit reproductive state, and exogenous leptin treatment on different innate and humoral immunological responses. The combined results of these studies emphasize the importance of individual resource balance and environmental resource availability on the occurrence of life-history trade-offs and the efficiency of physiological processes in general. Therefore, nothing in ecoimmunology seems to make sense except in the context of an organisms environment.