Thermal sensitivity of immune function: evidence against a generalist-specialist tradeoff among endothermic and ectothermic vertebrates

Animal body temperature (T_body) varies over daily and annual cycles, affecting multiple aspects of biological performance in both endothermic and ectothermic animals. Yet a comprehensive comparison of thermal performance among animals varying in T_body (mean and variance) and heat production is lacking. Thus, we examined the thermal sensitivity of immune function (a crucial fitness determinant) in Vertebrata, a group encompassing species of varying thermal biology. Specifically, we investigated temperature-related variation in two innate immune performance metrics, hemagglutination and hemolysis, for 13 species across all seven major vertebrate clades. Agglutination and lysis were temperature dependent and were more strongly related to the thermal biology of species (e.g., mean T_body) than to the phylogenetic relatedness of species, although these relationships were complex and frequently surprising (e.g., heterotherms did not exhibit broader thermal performance curves than homeotherm...

动物体温（T_body）随日周期与年周期波动，影响恒温动物（endothermic animals）和变温动物（ectothermic animals）生物性能的多个方面。然而，目前尚缺乏对体温（均值与方差）和产热能力不同的动物之间热性能的全面比较。因此，我们研究了脊椎动物门（Vertebrata）中免疫功能（适合度的关键决定因素）的热敏感性——该类群包含具有不同热生物学特征的物种。具体而言，我们针对涵盖脊椎动物所有七个主要分支的13个物种，探究了先天免疫（innate immune）性能的两个指标（血凝反应（hemagglutination）和溶血反应（hemolysis））与温度相关的变异。血凝与溶血反应具有温度依赖性，且与物种的热生物学特征（如平均体温）的相关性强于物种的系统发育相关性，尽管这些关系复杂且常令人意外（例如，异温动物（heterotherms）的热性能曲线并未比恒温动物（homeotherms）更宽……）