ArticleThe American naturalist2015
Immune activation generates corticosterone-mediated terminal reproductive investment in a wild bird.
Article in The American naturalist, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 33 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
33 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Do Egg Hormones Have Fitness Consequences in Wild Birds? A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Ecology letters · 2025Pooled it
- Stress, Well-Being, and Reproduction in Wildlife.Advances in experimental medicine and biology · 2026Review
- Amphibian Chytrid Fungus Infection Influences Calling Investment in Male Brown Toadlets.Ecology and evolution · 2025Article
- Current reproductive effort shapes the response to infection in a passerine bird.The Journal of animal ecology · 2025Article
- Higher intake of β-glucan impairs reproduction in a female teleost, Tor putitora (Hamilton, 1822).Fish physiology and biochemistry · 2024Article
- Article
- Experimental reduction of haemosporidian infection affects maternal reproductive investment, parental behaviour and offspring condition.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2022Article
- Female birds monitor the activity of their mates while brooding nest-bound young.Animal cognition · 2021Article
- Connecting the dots: avian eggshell pigmentation, female condition and paternal provisioning effort.Biological journal of the Linnean Society. Linnean Society of London · 2020Article
- Condition-Dependent Begging Elicits Increased Parental Investment in a Wild Bird Population.The American naturalist · 2019Article
- Nest microclimate during incubation affects posthatching development and parental care in wild birds.Scientific reports · 2019Article
- Beak abnormality hinders provisioning ability and reduces body condition of a female house wren (The Wilson journal of ornithology · 2019Article
- Pre- and postnatal effects of experimentally manipulated maternal corticosterone on growth, stress reactivity and survival of nestling house wrens.Functional ecology · 2018Article
- Associations between glucocorticoids and sociality across a continuum of vertebrate social behavior.Ecology and evolution · 2018Review
- Maternal immunization increases nestling energy expenditure, immune function, and fledging success in a passerine bird.Biology open · 2018Article
- Experimental manipulation of incubation period reveals no apparent costs of incubation in house wrens.Animal behaviour · 2018Article
- The effect of pre-laying maternal immunization on offspring growth and immunity differs across experimentally altered postnatal rearing conditions in a wild songbird.Frontiers in zoology · 2018Article
- Anticipatory parental effects in a subtropical lizard in response to experimental warming.Frontiers in zoology · 2018Article
- A dynamic threshold model for terminal investment.Behavioral ecology and sociobiology · 2017Article
- Ant queens increase their reproductive efforts after pathogen infection.Royal Society open science · 2017Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Despite classical expectations of a trade-off between immune activity and reproduction, an emergent view suggests that individuals experiencing activation of their immune system actually increase reproductive effort and allocation to offspring as a form of terminal investment in response to reduced survival probability. However, the components and mechanisms of increased parental investment following immunostimulation are currently unknown. We hypothesize that increased glucocorticoid production following immunostimulation modulates the increase in reproductive effort that constitutes terminal investment. We activated the immune system of breeding female house wrens (Troglodytes aedon) with an immunogen and cross-fostered the eggs that they subsequently produced to separate prenatal and postnatal components of maternal investment. Cross-fostering revealed an increase in both pre- and postnatal allocation from immunostimulated females, which was confirmed by quantification of egg constituents and maternal provisioning behavior. The increase in maternal provisioning was mediated, at least in part, by increased corticosterone in these females. Offspring immune responsiveness was also enhanced through transgenerational immune priming via the egg. Thus, our results indicate that maternal immunostimulation induces transgenerational effects on offspring through both pre- and postnatal parental effects and support an important role for corticosterone in mediating parental investment.
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