ArticleBMC biology2022
Inherent constraints on a polyfunctional tissue lead to a reproduction-immunity tradeoff.
Article in BMC biology, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 29 papers.
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29 citing papers in PubMed, 43 citations in OpenAlex.
- Crosstalk BetweenInsects · 2026Article
- Persistent viral infection in the Drosophila fat body is associated with immune activation at the single cell level.BMC genomics · 2026Article
- Cell-specific responses of Anopheles gambiae fat body to blood feeding and infection at single-nuclei resolution.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Heterogeneous NF-κB activation and enhancer features shape transcription in Drosophila immunity.Biophysical journal · 2026Article
- Spatial microenvironments tune immune response dynamics in the Drosophila larval fat body.PLoS genetics · 2026Article
- Article
- Optimized Method for High-Quality Isolation of Single-Nuclei From Mosquito Fat Body for RNA Sequencing.Bio-protocol · 2026Article
- Bacterial infection elicits theOpen biology · 2025Article
- Trade-off between antibacterial immune defense and oogenesis progression in female Drosophila melanogaster.Genetics · 2025Article
- Spatial microenvironments tune immune response dynamics in thebioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- From whole bodies to single cells: A guide to transcriptomic approaches for ecology and evolutionary biology.Molecular ecology · 2025Review
- Heterogeneous NF-κB activation and enhancer features shape transcription inbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Varying phylogenetic signal in susceptibility to four bacterial pathogens across species of Drosophilidae.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2025Article
- Reciprocal costs of infection and reproduction inBiology letters · 2025Article
- Knockdown ofInsects · 2025Article
- Octopamine modulates the innate immune response inFrontiers in immunology · 2025Article
- Ovariole number does not predict reproductive output or trade-off with immunity in Drosophila melanogaster.PloS one · 2025Article
- High sugar diets can increase susceptibility to bacterial infection in Drosophila melanogaster.PLoS pathogens · 2024Article
- When the microbiome shapes the host: immune evolution implications for infectious disease.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2024Review
- Effects of an entomopathogenic fungus on the reproductive potential ofEcology and evolution · 2024Article
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
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Abstract
backgroundSingle tissues can have multiple functions, which can result in constraints, impaired function, and tradeoffs. The insect fat body performs remarkably diverse functions including metabolic control, reproductive provisioning, and systemic immune responses. How polyfunctional tissues simultaneously execute multiple distinct physiological functions is generally unknown. Immunity and reproduction are observed to trade off in many organisms but the mechanistic basis for this tradeoff is also typically not known. Here we investigate constraints and trade-offs in the polyfunctional insect fat body.
resultsUsing single-nucleus sequencing, we determined that the Drosophila melanogaster fat body executes diverse basal functions with heterogenous cellular subpopulations. The size and identity of these subpopulations are remarkably stable between virgin and mated flies, as well as before and after infection. However, as an emergency function, the immune response engages the entire tissue and all cellular subpopulations produce induce expression of defense genes. We found that reproductively active females who were given bacterial infection exhibited signatures of ER stress and impaired capacity to synthesize new protein in response to infection, including decreased capacity to produce antimicrobial peptides. Transient provision of a reversible translation inhibitor to mated females prior to infection rescued general protein synthesis, specific production of antimicrobial peptides, and survival of infection.
conclusionsThe commonly observed tradeoff between reproduction and immunity appears to be driven, in D. melanogaster, by a failure of the fat body to be able to handle simultaneous protein translation demands of reproductive provisioning and immune defense. We suggest that inherent cellular limitations in tissues that perform multiple functions may provide a general explanation for the wide prevalence of physiological and evolutionary tradeoffs.
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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.