Introduction. Ecological immunology

An organism's fitness is critically reliant on its immune system to provide protection against parasites and pathogens. The structure of even simple immune systems is surprisingly complex and clearly will have been moulded by the organism's ecology. The aim of this review and the theme iss...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B. Biological sciences 2009-01, Vol.364 (1513), p.3-14
Main Authors: Schulenburg, Hinrich, Kurtz, Joachim, Moret, Yannick, Siva-Jothy, Michael T
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adaptive Immune System
Adaptive immunology
Animals
Biodiversity and Ecology
Biological Evolution
Coevolution
Ecological Immunology
Ecology, environment
Ecosystem
Environmental Sciences
Evolution
Genetics, Population
Host-Pathogen Interactions
Host-Pathogen Interactions - genetics
Host-Pathogen Interactions - immunology
Humans
Immunity
Immunology
Innate Immune System
Introduction
Life Sciences
Microbiology and Parasitology
Microbiota
Parasitology
Symbiosis
Trade-Off
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Summary:An organism's fitness is critically reliant on its immune system to provide protection against parasites and pathogens. The structure of even simple immune systems is surprisingly complex and clearly will have been moulded by the organism's ecology. The aim of this review and the theme issue is to examine the role of different ecological factors on the evolution of immunity. Here, we will provide a general framework of the field by contextualizing the main ecological factors, including interactions with parasites, other types of biotic as well as abiotic interactions, intraspecific selective constraints (life-history trade-offs, sexual selection) and population genetic processes. We then elaborate the resulting immunological consequences such as the diversity of defence mechanisms (e.g. avoidance behaviour, resistance, tolerance), redundancy and protection against immunopathology, life-history integration of the immune response and shared immunity within a community (e.g. social immunity and microbiota-mediated protection). Our review summarizes the concepts of current importance and directs the reader to promising future research avenues that will deepen our understanding of the defence against parasites and pathogens.
ISSN:0962-8436
1471-2970
DOI:10.1098/rstb.2008.0249