Data from: The effect of maternal and paternal immune challenge on offspring immunity and reproduction in a cricket

Trans-generational immune priming is the transmission of enhanced immunity to offspring following a parental immune challenge. Although within-generation increased investment into immunity demonstrates clear costs on reproductive investment in a number of taxa, the potential for immune priming to impact on offspring reproductive investment has not been thoroughly investigated. We explored the reproductive costs of immune priming in a field cricket, Teleogryllus oceanicus. To assess the relative importance of maternal and paternal immune status, mothers and fathers were immune challenged with live bacteria or a control solution and assigned to one of four treatments in which one parent, neither or both parents were immune challenged. Families of offspring were reared to adulthood under a food-restricted diet, and approximately 10 offspring in each family were assayed for two measures of immunocompetence. We additionally quantified offspring reproductive investment using sperm viability for males and ovary mass for females. We demonstrate that parental immune challenge has significant consequences for the immunocompetence and, in turn, reproductive investment of their male offspring. A complex interaction between maternal and paternal immune status increased the anti-bacterial immune response of male offspring. This elevated immune response was associated with a reduction in son’s sperm viability, implicating a trans-generational resource trade-off between investment into immunocompetence and reproduction. Our data also show that these costs are sexually dimorphic, as daughters did not demonstrate a similar increase in immunity, despite showing a reduction in ovary mass.跨代免疫致敏（Trans-generational immune priming）是指亲代受到免疫挑战后，将增强的免疫力传递给子代的现象。尽管同代个体中免疫投入的增加会对多个类群的繁殖投入造成明确代价，但跨代免疫致敏是否会对子代的繁殖投入产生影响，目前尚未得到充分研究。本研究以大洋洲蟋蟀（Teleogryllus oceanicus）为实验对象，探究了免疫致敏带来的繁殖代价。为评估母本与父本免疫状态的相对重要性，我们分别对母本、父本施以活体细菌免疫挑战或对照溶液处理，并将亲本分为四组：仅母本受免疫挑战、仅父本受免疫挑战、双亲均受免疫挑战、双亲均未受免疫挑战。子代家系在食物限制条件下饲养至成虫阶段，每个家系选取约10只子代，对其两项免疫能力指标进行检测。此外，我们还通过雄性精子活力、雌性卵巢质量分别量化子代的繁殖投入。研究结果表明，亲代免疫挑战对其子代雄性的免疫能力及后续繁殖投入均存在显著影响。母本与父本的免疫状态间存在复杂交互作用，可提升子代雄性的抗菌免疫应答；而这种增强的免疫应答与雄性精子活力下降显著相关，暗示免疫能力投入与繁殖投入之间存在跨代资源权衡。本研究数据还显示，此类代价存在性别二态性：尽管雌性子代的卵巢质量出现下降，但并未表现出与雄性类似的免疫能力提升现象。