Life-history strategy determines constraints on immune function

1) Determining the factors governing investment in immunity is critical for understanding host-pathogen ecological and evolutionary dynamics. Studies often consider disease resistance in the context of life-history theory, with the expectation that investment in immunity will be optimized in anticipation of disease risk. Immunity, however, is constrained by context-dependent fitness costs. How the costs of immunity vary across life-history strategies has yet to be considered.
2) Pea aphids are typically unwinged but produce winged offspring in response to high population densities and deteriorating conditions. This is an example of polyphenism, a strategy used by many organisms to adjust to environmental cues. The goal of this study was to examine the relationship between the fitness costs of immunity, pathogen resistance, and the strength of an immune response across aphid morphs that differ in life-history strategy but are genetically identical.
3) We measured fecundity of winged an...