ArticleBMC evolutionary biology2008
Mortality selection during the 2003 European heat wave in three-spined sticklebacks: effects of parasites and MHC genotype.
Article in BMC evolutionary biology, 2008. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 41 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
41 citing papers in PubMed, 121 citations in OpenAlex.
- MHC Diversity Across Time and Space.Ecology and evolution · 2025Review
- Ecophysiological responses to heat waves in the marine intertidal zone.The Journal of experimental biology · 2025Review
- Acute warming tolerance (CTPeerJ · 2024Article
- Thermal tolerance and survival are modulated by a natural gradient of infection in differentially acclimated hosts.Conservation physiology · 2024Article
- Diversifying selection and climatic effects on major histocompatibility complex class II gene diversity in the greater horseshoe bat.Evolutionary applications · 2023Article
- A Review of Suggested Mechanisms of MHC Odor Signaling.Biology · 2022Review
- Functional immunogenetic variation, rather than local adaptation, predicts ectoparasite infection intensity in a model fish species.Molecular ecology · 2021Article
- Experimental manipulation of cavity temperature produces differential effects on parasite abundances in blue tit nests at two different latitudes.International journal for parasitology. Parasites and wildlife · 2021Review
- Sex biased effect of acute heat shock on the antioxidant system of non-native round goby Neogobius melanostomus.PloS one · 2021Article
- Linking Behavior, Co-infection Patterns, and Viral Infection Risk With the Whole Gastrointestinal Helminth Community Structure inFrontiers in veterinary science · 2021Article
- Low potential for evolutionary rescue from climate change in a tropical fish.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2020Article
- Article
- Ambient temperature alters body size and gut microbiota of Xenopus tropicalis.Science China. Life sciences · 2020Article
- Is MHC diversity a better marker for conservation than neutral genetic diversity? A case study of two contrasting dolphin populations.Ecology and evolution · 2019Article
- Inbreeding does not alter the response to an experimental heat wave in a freshwater snail.PloS one · 2019Article
- Cryptic haplotype-specific gamete selection yields offspring with optimal MHC immune genes.Evolution; international journal of organic evolution · 2018Article
- Positive selection and climatic effects on MHC class II gene diversity in hares (Lepus capensis) from a steep ecological gradient.Scientific reports · 2018Article
- Frequency dependence limits divergent evolution by favouring rare immigrants over residents.Nature · 2017Article
- Environmental temperature variation influences fitness trade-offs and tolerance in a fish-tapeworm association.Parasites & vectors · 2017Article
- Pathogenic endoparasites of the spotted seatrout, Cynoscion nebulosus: patterns of infection in estuaries of South Carolina, USA.Parasitology research · 2017Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundEcological interaction strength may increase under environmental stress including temperature. How such stress enhances and interacts with parasite selection is almost unknown. We studied the importance of resistance genes of the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class II in 14 families of three-spined sticklebacks Gasterosteus aculeatus exposed to their natural macroparasites in field enclosures in the extreme summer of 2003.
resultsAfter a mass die-off during the 2003-European heat wave killing 78% of 277 experimental fish, we found strong differences in survival among and within families. In families with higher average parasite load fewer individuals survived. Multivariate analysis revealed that the composition of the infecting parasite fauna was family specific. Within families, individuals with an intermediate number of MHC class IIB sequence variants survived best and had the lowest parasite load among survivors, suggesting a direct functional link between MHC diversity and fitness. The within family MHC effects were, however, small compared to between family effects, suggesting that other genetic components or non-genetic effects were also important.
conclusionThe correlation between parasite load and mortality that we found at both individual and family level might have appeared only in the extraordinary heatwave of 2003. Due to global warming the frequency of extreme climatic events is predicted to increase, which might intensify costs of parasitism and enhance selection on immune genes.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.