Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2011 Feb 23;7(1):156-9.
doi: 10.1098/rsbl.2010.0634. Epub 2010 Sep 1.

Phenoloxidase but not lytic activity reflects resistance against Pasteuria ramosa in Daphnia magna

Kevin Pauwels  1 , Luc De Meester, Ellen Decaestecker, Robby Stoks
Affiliations

Phenoloxidase but not lytic activity reflects resistance against Pasteuria ramosa in Daphnia magna

Kevin Pauwels et al. Biol Lett. .

Abstract

The field of ecological immunology strongly relies on indicators of immunocompetence. Two major indicators in invertebrates, the activity of phenoloxidase (PO) and lytic activity have recently been questioned in studies showing that, across a natural range of baseline levels, these indicators did not predict resistance against a manipulated challenge with natural parasites. We confirmed this finding by showing that baseline levels of PO and lytic activity in the host Daphnia magna were not related to spore load of the parasite Pasteuria ramosa. Yet, PO levels in infected hosts did predict spore load, indicating PO activity can be useful as an indicator of immunocompetence in this model parasite-host system.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
(a) Spore load (b) phenoloxidase activity and (c) lytic activity for four D. magna clones after 21 days of infection with the parasite P. ramosa. Given are least square means ± 1 s.e.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Relationships between (log-transformed) spore loads of the parasite P. ramosa in the host D. magna and (a) baseline PO levels, (b) PO levels in infected hosts, (c) baseline lytic activity, and (d) lytic activity in infected hosts. Relationships between PO levels and lytic activity in (e) not-infected hosts and (f) infected hosts. Symbols represent the different clones, and clonal means are plotted ± 1 s.e.(full symbols).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Rolff J., Siva-Jothy M. T. 2003. Invertebrate ecological immunology. Science 301, 472–47510.1126/science.1080623 (doi:10.1126/science.1080623) - DOI - DOI - PubMed
    1. Cerenius L., Lee B. L., Söderhall K. 2008. The proPO-system: pros and cons for its role in invertebrate immunity. Trends Immunol. 29, 263–27110.1016/j.it.2008.02.009 (doi:10.1016/j.it.2008.02.009) - DOI - DOI - PubMed
    1. Popham H. J. R., Shelby K. S., Brandt S. L., Coudron T. A. 2004. Potent virucidal activity in larval Heliothis virescens plasma against Helicoverpa zea single capsid nucleopolyhedrovirus. J. Gen. Virol. 85, 2255–226110.1099/vir.0.79965-0 (doi:10.1099/vir.0.79965-0) - DOI - DOI - PubMed
    1. Schmid-Hempel P. 2005. Evolutionary ecology of insect immune defenses. Annu. Rev. Entomol. 50, 529–55110.1146/annurev.ento.50.071803.130420 (doi:10.1146/annurev.ento.50.071803.130420) - DOI - DOI - PubMed
    1. Adamo S. A. 2004. Estimating disease resistance in insects: phenoloxidase and lysozyme-like activity and disease resistance in the cricket Gryllus texensis. J. Insect Physiol. 50, 209–21610.1016/j.jinsphys.2003.11.011 (doi:10.1016/j.jinsphys.2003.11.011) - DOI - DOI - PubMed

Publication types

Substances

LinkOut - more resources