Long antibody persistence and transgenerational transfer of immunity in a long-lived vertebrate

Although little studied in natural populations, the persistence of immunoglobulins may dramatically affect the dynamics of immunity and the ecology and evolution of host-pathogen interactions involving vertebrate hosts. By means of a multiple-year vaccination design against Newcastle disease virus, we experimentally addressed whether levels of specific antibodies can persist over several years in females of a long-lived procellariiform seabird—Cory’s shearwater—and whether maternal antibodies against that antigen could persist over a long period in offspring several years after the mother was exposed. We found that a single vaccination led to high levels of antibodies for several years and that the females transmitted antibodies to their offspring that persisted for several weeks after hatching even 5 years after a single vaccination. The temporal persistence of maternally transferred antibodies in nestlings was highly dependent on the level at hatching. A second vaccination boosted eff...尽管在自然种群中鲜有研究，但免疫球蛋白（immunoglobulins）的持续存在可能会显著影响免疫动态，以及涉及脊椎动物宿主的宿主-病原体互作的生态学与演化进程。本研究采用针对新城疫病毒（Newcastle disease virus）的多年期疫苗接种实验设计，以长寿命鹱形目海鸟——科里剪水鹱（Cory’s shearwater）——的雌性个体为实验对象，通过实验探究了两个问题：其一，特异性抗体水平能否在数年内维持稳定；其二，母源抗体（maternal antibodies）能否在母本暴露于抗原数年后，仍在子代体内长期留存。研究结果显示，单次疫苗接种即可使抗体水平维持数年之久；且即便在单次接种5年后，雌性个体仍可将抗体传递给子代，这些抗体在雏鸟孵化后仍可留存数周。雏鸟体内母源转移抗体的留存时长高度依赖于其孵化时的抗体水平。第二次接种可有效增强……