SynthesisBMC biology2023
The influence of immune challenges on the mean and variance in reproductive investment: a meta-analysis of the terminal investment hypothesis.
Synthesis in BMC biology, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Synthesis of Nature's Extravaganza: An Augmented Meta-Meta-Analysis on (Putative) Sexual Signals.Ecology letters · 2025Pooled it
- Chytridiomycosis infection and heat compromise sperm quality in a threatened frog.The Journal of experimental biology · 2026Article
- Absence of conserved immune signalling pathways and increased pathogen susceptibility associated to photosymbiosis in acoels.BMC biology · 2026Article
- Host Transcriptomics Reveal Reduction in Defence-Reproduction Trade-Offs During Coinfection.Molecular ecology · 2025Article
- Do I Sound Sick? Condition-Dependent Advertisement Signals in Naturally Infected Frogs.Ecology and evolution · 2025Article
- Amphibian Chytrid Fungus Infection Influences Calling Investment in Male Brown Toadlets.Ecology and evolution · 2025Article
- Devastating disease can cause increased breeding effort and success that improves population resilience.Open biology · 2025Article
- What does not kill you makes you stronger? Effects of paternal age at conception on fathers and sons.Evolution; international journal of organic evolution · 2024Article
- Hot and scared: how do heatwaves and predation risk impact resource acquisition and allocation?Biology letters · 2024Article
- Article
- Multiple morphophysiological responses of a tropical frog to urbanization conform to the pace-of-life syndrome.Conservation physiology · 2024Article
- Age-related changes and selective disappearance shape variation in bold-shy continuum in guppies.Behavioral ecology : official journal of the International Society for Behavioral EcologyArticle
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Finding the optimal balance between survival and reproduction is a central puzzle in life-history theory. The terminal investment hypothesis predicts that when individuals encounter a survival threat that compromises future reproductive potential, they will increase immediate reproductive investment to maximise fitness. Despite decades of research on the terminal investment hypothesis, findings remain mixed. We examined the terminal investment hypothesis with a meta-analysis of studies that measured reproductive investment of multicellular iteroparous animals after a non-lethal immune challenge. We had two main aims. The first was to investigate whether individuals, on average, increase reproductive investment in response to an immune threat, as predicted by the terminal investment hypothesis. We also examined whether such responses vary adaptively on factors associated with the amount of reproductive opportunities left (residual reproductive value) in the individuals, as predicted by the terminal investment hypothesis. The second was to provide a quantitative test of a novel prediction based on the dynamic threshold model: that an immune threat increases between-individual variance in reproductive investment. Our results provided some support for our hypotheses. Older individuals, who are expected to have lower residual reproductive values, showed stronger mean terminal investment response than younger individuals. In terms of variance, individuals showed a divergence in responses, leading to an increase in variance. This increase in variance was especially amplified in longer-living species, which was consistent with our prediction that individuals in longer-living species should respond with greater individual variation due to increased phenotypic plasticity. We find little statistical evidence of publication bias. Together, our results highlight the need for a more nuanced view on the terminal investment hypothesis and a greater focus on the factors that drive individual responses.
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