ArticleOpen biology2016
Amphibians with infectious disease increase their reproductive effort: evidence for the terminal investment hypothesis.
Article in Open biology, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 21 papers.
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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.
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Who cites it
21 citing papers in PubMed, 75 citations in OpenAlex.
- Chytridiomycosis infection and heat compromise sperm quality in a threatened frog.The Journal of experimental biology · 2026Article
- Reproductive Modes of Amphibians and Reptiles: Impacts on Conservation and the Development of Assisted Reproductive Technologies.Advances in experimental medicine and biology · 2026Review
- Amphibian Chytrid Fungus Infection Influences Calling Investment in Male Brown Toadlets.Ecology and evolution · 2025Article
- Intestinal Nematode Infection Confers a Benefit to a Non-Declining Frog Species, While a Fungal Parasitic Infection Has Sublethal Impacts on Reproductive Investment.Ecology and evolution · 2025Article
- Devastating disease can cause increased breeding effort and success that improves population resilience.Open biology · 2025Article
- Analysis of Reproductive Strategies and Immunological Interactions inAnimals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2025Article
- The Sixth Mass Extinction and Amphibian Species Sustainability Through Reproduction and Advanced Biotechnologies, Biobanking of Germplasm and Somatic Cells, and Conservation Breeding Programs (RBCs).Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2024Review
- Article
- The suppression of a selfish genetic element increases a male's mating success in a fly.Ecology and evolution · 2023Article
- Amphibian infection tolerance to chytridiomycosis.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2023Review
- Article
- Cold shock induces a terminal investment reproductive response in C. elegans.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Interactions between reproductive biology and microbiomes in wild animal species.Animal microbiome · 2021Review
- Description and ecophysiology of a new species ofInternational journal for parasitology. Parasites and wildlife · 2019Article
- Interaction between temperature and sublethal infection with the amphibian chytrid fungus impacts a susceptible frog species.Scientific reports · 2019Article
- Predicting the Future: Parental Progeny Investment in Response to Environmental Stress Cues.Frontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2019Review
- Using Terminal Transferase-mediated dUTP Nick End-labelling (TUNEL) and Caspase 3/7 Assays to Measure Epidermal Cell Death in Frogs with Chytridiomycosis.Journal of visualized experiments : JoVE · 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
- Characterization of MHC class IA in the endangered southern corroboree frog.Immunogenetics · 2017Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Mounting an immune response to fight disease is costly for an organism and can reduce investment in another life-history trait, such as reproduction. The terminal investment hypothesis predicts that an organism will increase reproductive effort when threatened by disease. The reproductive fitness of amphibians infected with the deadly fungal pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) is largely unknown. In this study, we explored gametogenesis in two endangered and susceptible frog species, Pseudophryne corroboree and Litoria verreauxii alpina. Gametogenesis, both oogenesis and spermatogenesis, increased when animals were experimentally infected with Bd In P. corroboree, infected males have thicker germinal epithelium, and a larger proportion of spermatocytes. In L. v. alpina, infected males had more spermatic cell bundles in total, and a larger proportion of spermatozoa bundles. In female L. v. alpina, ovaries and oviducts were larger in infected animals, and there were more cells present within the ovaries. Terminal investment has consequences for the evolution of disease resistance in declining species. If infected animals are increasing reproductive efforts and producing more offspring before succumbing to disease, it is possible that population-level selection for disease resistance will be minimized.
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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.