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- Cichon, M., et al.
(författare)
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Genetic and environmental variation in immune response of collared flycatcher nestlings
- 2006
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Ingår i: Journal of Evolutionary Biology. - : Wiley. - 1010-061X .- 1420-9101. ; 19:5, s. 1701-1706
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper aims at partitioning genetic and environmental contribution to the phenotypic variance in nestling immune function measured with the hypersensitivity test after inoculation with phytohaemagglutinin. A cross-fostering experiment with artificial enlargement of some broods was conducted. Variation in nestling immune response was related to their common origin, which suggests heritable component of cell-mediated immunity. A common rearing environment also explained a significant part of variation. However, deterioration of rearing conditions as simulated by enlargement of brood size did not affect nestling immunocompetence, although it affected nestling body mass. Variation in body mass explained some of the variation in immune response related to rearing environment, which means that growth is more sensitive to the shifts in rearing conditions than the development of immune function. Heritable variation in immune response suggests that there should be potential for selection to operate and the micro evolutionary changes in immunity of flycatcher nestlings are possible.
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| 5. |
- Haugaard, Katrine, et al.
(författare)
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Interbull Technical Workshop 2023 Overview of the New Traits Session
- 2023
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Ingår i: Interbull bulletin. - 2001-340X. ; , s. 1-6
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- New phenotypes have been systematically collected by national genetic centres, often leading to implementation of national genetic evaluation for several economically important dairy traits. However, the MACE portfolio has remained fixed to seven publishable trait groups since workability (including milking speed and temperament traits), was added in 2009. Streamlining the procedure for identifying new suitable traits for the MACE portfolio has been identified as a key goal in the 2020-2023 Interbull strategic plan. The first stage to achieve such objective is surveying the available data across countries on a more routinely basis: countries could be on different stages of data collection, research or development of national evaluation, and that there could be also differences in the above stages per breed.Information about national genetic evaluations for traits included in MACE evaluations have, for several decades, been collected and published on the Interbull Centre website in the form of word or pdf documents. In 2022, with the introduction of the Performance Recording, Evaluation and Publication database (PREPdb), electronic forms, rather than flat files, were developed for collecting such information. The “Other Traits” form, dedicated to traits not (yet) included in international evaluations, was also introduced. Prior to the Interbull Technical Workshop held in Rome in February 2023, Interbull Centre encouraged all its members to fill in the Other Traits form with as much information on additional traits they record nationally as possible. The aim was to identify possible new trait(s) to include in the Interbull portfolio. Upon review of the information collected, gestation length, retained placenta and milk fever/hypercalcemia were identified as the most frequently reported traits, and were chosen as the traits to be further discussed during the workshop’s session. This report provides an overview of the discussion that took place both during the panel session and the groups’ discussion that characterised the workshop’s session on new traits.
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| 6. |
- Pitala, Natalia, et al.
(författare)
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Nestling immune response to phytohaemagglutinin is not heritable in collared flycatchers
- 2007
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Ingår i: Biology Letters. - : The Royal Society. - 1744-9561 .- 1744-957X. ; 3:4, s. 418-421
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The response to intradermally injected phytohaemagglutinin (PHA-response) is a commonly used quantification of avian immunocompetence (the ability to resist pathogens). Parasite-mediated sexual selection requires heritable immunocompetence, but evidence for heritability of PHA-response in birds largely stems from full-sib comparisons. Using an animal model approach, we quantified the narrow-sense heritability of PHA-response in 1626 collared flycatcher (Ficedula albicollis) nestlings from 332 families, most of which were cross-fostered. Nestling PHA-response was not significantly heritable (h2=0.06±0.10), but was subject to non-heritable nest-of-origin effects (10% of variation). Our findings illustrate that full-sib comparisons of immunological measures may lead to an inflated estimate of heritability and also reveal a limited role of nestling PHA-response for sexual selection in this population.
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| 7. |
- Radwan, Jacek, et al.
(författare)
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MHC diversity, malaria and lifetime reproductive success in collared flycatchers
- 2012
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Ingår i: Molecular Ecology. - 0962-1083 .- 1365-294X. ; 21:10, s. 2469-2479
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Major histocompatibility complex (MHC) genes encode proteins involved in the recognition of parasite-derived antigens. Their extreme polymorphism is presumed to be driven by co-evolution with parasites. Hostparasite co-evolution was also hypothesized to optimize within-individual MHC diversity at the intermediate level. Here, we use unique data on lifetime reproductive success (LRS) of female collared flycatchers to test whether LRS is associated with within-individual MHC class II diversity. We also examined the association between MHC and infection with avian malaria. Using 454 sequencing, we found that individual flycatchers carry between 3 and 23 functional MHC class II B alleles. Predictions of the optimality hypothesis were not confirmed by our data as the prevalence of blood parasites decreased with functional MHC diversity. Furthermore, we did not find evidence for an association between MHC diversity and LRS.
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| 8. |
- Sendecka, Joanna, et al.
(författare)
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Age-dependent reproductive costs and the role of breeding skills in the Collared flycatcher
- 2007
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Ingår i: Acta Zoologica. - : Wiley. - 0001-7272 .- 1463-6395. ; 88:2, s. 95-100
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This study addressed whether there are any age-related differences in reproductive costs. Of especial interest was whether young individuals increased their reproductive effort, and thereby their reproductive cost, as much as older birds when brood size was enlarged. To address these questions, a brood-size manipulation experiment with reciprocal cross-fostering of nestlings of young and middle-aged female Collared flycatchers, Ficedula albicollis, was performed on the Swedish island of Gotland. Nestlings' body mass, tarsus length and survival were recorded to estimate the parental ability and parental effort of the experimental female birds. Female survival and clutch size were recorded in the following years to estimate reproductive costs. We found that middle-aged female flycatchers coped better with enlarged broods than younger females or invested more in reproduction. In the following year, young female birds that had raised enlarged broods laid smaller clutches than the females from all the other experimental groups. This result shows that the young female birds pay higher reproductive costs than the middle-aged females. Both young and middle-aged female flycatchers seemed to increase their reproductive effort when brood size was increased. However, such an increase resulted in higher reproductive costs for the young females. The difference in reproductive costs between birds of different ages is most likely a result of insufficient breeding skills of the young individuals.
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| 9. |
- Sendecka, Joanna, 1975-
(författare)
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Age, Longevity and Life-History Trade-Offs in the Collared Flycatcher (Ficedula albicollis)
- 2007
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Age is often a neglected factor in ecological studies. However, age-related changes in reproduction and survival of organisms may strongly influence population dynamics. The Gotlandic population of collared flycatchers is a perfect system for studying age-related changes in the wild, as the exact age and reproductive history of most individuals is known. Collared flycatchers (Ficedula albicollis) on Gotland show the typical pattern of age-related changes in survival and reproductive success; both factors show an increase early in life and a decrease late in life. This thesis presents a broad study not only of age-related patterns of reproduction and immunity, but also proposes the mechanisms driving these patterns. My results show that in addition to survival probability and reproductive performance, reproductive costs and life-history trade-offs also change with progressing age. There is a significant increase in reproductive performance at the population level during first years of life which result from selection against low quality phenotypes. On the individual level this pattern is best explained by an optimization of reproductive effort. However, high quality individuals have higher reproductive success as early as their first breeding event and are long-lived. Thus, they seem to adopt a different strategy than lower quality, short-lived individuals. Differences in individual quality seem to be shaped by the developmental conditions experienced as nestlings. Fledglings with longer tarsi, but lower body mass become long-lived, high quality adults. Young individuals breeding for first time pay higher costs of reproduction. They also express a limited ability to reduce these costs by breeding in high quality territories when compared to middle-aged individuals. Young individuals seem to invest more into self-maintenance, whereas old individuals reduce the level of self-maintenance (measured as immune response) and redistribute their investment towards reproduction. Thus, old individuals are limited in their ability to reduce reproductive costs under favorable conditions, especially as they also senesce, which pattern is also shaped by individual quality. Variation in individual quality appears to have an strong effect on age-related survival probability, reproductive performance, reproductive costs, and even life-history decisions. Therefore, taking this factor into account in studies of life-history patterns is necessary to obtain reliable results.
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