Meeting Abstract
Neonatal offspring are immunologically naïve and must invest limited resources into costly defenses when encountering pathogens. However, in oviparous species, a female can provide additional immunological protection to her offspring via transfer of antibodies and antimicrobial components to her eggs. Doing so can reduce the energetic cost of mounting an immune response early on in life, when mortality is often at its highest. Although most studies have focused on the effects of maternal investment of immune factors in neonatal offspring, few studies have measured it in a developing egg. In this study, we measured natural variation of innate immune function in the clutches of 15 wild-caught female Side-blotched lizards (49 eggs) via bactericidal, hemolysis, and hemagglutination assays. Preliminary data show inter and intra-clutch variation in egg immunity, suggesting maternal investment varies both between females and even among eggs within the same clutch. The relationship between female and egg immunity, and correlates among immune metrics will also be presented. Maternal investment of resources can drastically affect offspring growth, development, and survival, and thus the results of this study greatly expand our knowledge on dynamics between maternal health, maternal investment, and offspring quality.
