adult cellular immune paramenter (flow cytometry), adult & juvenile candidate gene expression (Fluidigm)

Background: Parental care, while increasing parental fitness through offspring survival also bears cost to the care-giving parent. Consequentially, trade offs between parental care and other vitally important traits, such as the immune system seem evident. In co-occurring phases of parental care and immunological challenges negative consequences through a resource allocation trade off on both the parental and the offspring conditions can be predicted. While the immune system is reflecting parental stress conditions, parental immunological investments also boost offspring survival via the transfer of immunological substances (trans-generational immune priming).