Measuring the immune system of the three-spined stickleback - examining natural variation in the laboratory and the wild

Current understanding of the immune system comes primarily from laboratory-based studies. There has been substantial interest in examining how it functions in the wild, but studies have been limited by a lack of appropriate assays and study species. The three-spined stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus L.) provides an ideal system in which to advance the study of wild immunology, but requires the development of suitable immune assays. We demonstrate that meaningful variation in the immune response of stickleback can be measured using real-time PCR to quantify the expression of eight genes, representing the innate response and Th1-, Th2- and Treg-type adaptive responses. Assays are validated by comparing the immune expression profiles of wild and laboratory-raised stickleback, and by examining variation across populations on North Uist, Scotland. We also compare the immune response potential of laboratory-raised individuals from two Icelandic populations by stimulating cells in culture. I...当前学界对免疫系统的认知主要源自实验室研究。尽管学界对探究其在自然野生环境中的运作机制抱有浓厚兴趣，但相关研究却因缺乏适配的检测方法与研究物种而进展受限。三刺棘鱼（Gasterosteus aculeatus L.）是开展野生免疫学研究的理想模型体系，但仍需开发适配的免疫学检测方法。本研究证实，可通过实时荧光定量PCR（real-time PCR）量化8种基因的表达水平，以此检测棘鱼免疫应答的显著差异——这8种基因分别对应先天免疫应答、Th1型、Th2型及Treg型适应性免疫应答。本研究通过对比野生与实验室饲养棘鱼的免疫表达谱，并检测苏格兰北尤伊斯特岛不同种群间的免疫差异，验证了该检测方法的有效性。此外，本研究还通过体外细胞培养刺激实验，对比了冰岛两个种群的实验室饲养个体的免疫应答潜能。I...