Details of Award
NERC Reference : NE/I024534/1
The determinants of measures of immune function in a wild mammal.
Grant Award
- Principal Investigator:
- Professor E Riley, London Sch of Hygiene & Tropic. Medicine, Infectious and Tropical Diseases
- Co-Investigator:
- Dr JC Hafalla, London Sch of Hygiene & Tropic. Medicine, Infectious and Tropical Diseases
- Science Area:
- Terrestrial
- Overall Classification:
- Unknown
- ENRIs:
- Biodiversity
- Environmental Risks and Hazards
- Global Change
- Science Topics:
- None
- Abstract:
- Animals make immune responses to protect themselves from infections. All animals have infections during their life: being infected is a normal part of life. Animals can be infected internally with viruses, bacteria, protozoa (single-celled animals) and worms and externally with ticks and mites. Being infected causes harm to an animal because the infections damage and destroy cells and tissue. The immune responses that animals make to get rid of infections require a lot of energy. Therefore, overall, being infected is costly to an animal. Wild animals have many other challenges in their lives, apart from infections. For example, they have to search for food, which might often not be very abundant. Further, individuals compete with each other for limited amounts of food. Animals also reproduce which is, again, costly in time and energy. Putting this all together means that wild animals live stressful lives. One important aspect of this stress is that animals may not have enough food and energy to make ideal immune responses or to fully invest in reproduction etc. Therefore, wild animals have to make difficult 'decisions' about how to use their limited resources to keep themselves alive and to pass on their genes. Because of this, within a group of animals, individuals will vary in how good their immune responses are: some will make very strong responses, others very weak responses. We investigated this in a pilot project where we measured the immune responses of wild mice and, indeed, we found that different individuals vary a lot in the immune responses that they make. By comparing the immune responses of wild and laboratory mice we also found that the immune responses of wild mice are quite different to those of their laboratory cousins. We now want to understand what aspects of a wild mouse's life determines whether it makes a very strong immune response or a very weak immune response. Laboratory studies of animals have identified lots of things that can affect immune response: we want to find out which of these matter, and how much, in wild mice. Some factors that affect immune function are sex (and sex hormones), genetics, season, age and body condition. For example the male hormone testosterone often suppresses immune responses; animals fed low-protein or low-calorie diets often make weaker or slower immune responses. In our pilot project work we studied wild mice, Mus musculus. We particularly chose this species because this is also the laboratory mouse. There is a very detailed understanding of the immunology of laboratory mice and very many tools and reagents are available to measure their immune responses. This means that we could make very good measures of immune responses of wild mice, far better than we could for almost any other wild animal. In the work that we are proposing we will undertake a large survey of wild mice in which we will measure their immune function together with many other aspects of their biology including sex, genetics, size, weight, percent body fat, leptin (the 'fat' hormone) concentration, sex hormone concentrations etc. We will then look for associations between these different factors and immune responses, which will therefore tell us what determines the immune responses of mice in the wild. This will be the first study that will undertake a comprehensive study of immune function in wild mammals. The results will therefore, for the first time, allow us to understand the main controls of the immune responses of wild animals. This work will be relevant to understanding the immune function of other wild mammals and animals. This is important, not least, because immune function and its variation between individuals is important in affecting epidemics of infection and disease in wild populations.
- Period of Award:
- 1 Feb 2012 - 31 Jul 2015
- Value:
- £82,044 Split Award
Authorised funds only
- NERC Reference:
- NE/I024534/1
- Grant Stage:
- Completed
- Scheme:
- Standard Grant (FEC)
- Grant Status:
- Closed
- Programme:
- Standard Grant
This grant award has a total value of £82,044
FDAB - Financial Details (Award breakdown by headings)
| DI - Other Costs | Indirect - Indirect Costs | DA - Investigators | DA - Estate Costs | DA - Other Directly Allocated |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| £21,648 | £4,313 | £11,064 | £1,981 | £43,039 |
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