Data from: Robustness of the outcome of adult bumblebee infection with a trypanosome parasite after varied parasite exposures during larval development

The outcome of defence by the invertebrate immunity has recently been shown to be more complex than previously thought. In particular, the outcome is affected by biotic and abiotic environmental variation, host genotype, parasite genotype, and their interaction. Knowledge of conditions under which environmental variation affects the outcome of an infection is one important question that relates to this complexity. We here use the model system of the bumblebee, Bombus terrestris infected by the trypanosome, Crithidia bombi, combined with a split-colony design to test the influence of the parasite environment during larval rearing on adult resistance. We find that genotype-specific interactions are maintained, and adult resistance is not influenced. This demonstrates that environmental dependence of bumblebee-trypanosome interactions is not ubiquitous, and yet unknown constraints will maintain standard co-evolutionary dynamics under such environmental deviations.无脊椎动物免疫（invertebrate immunity）防御的结局近期被证实远比此前预想的更为复杂。具体而言，该免疫结局受生物与非生物环境变异、宿主基因型（host genotype）、寄生虫基因型（parasite genotype）及其交互作用的影响。探明环境变异影响感染结局的具体条件，是与该复杂性相关的核心问题之一。本研究以被锥虫（trypanosome）短膜虫（Crithidia bombi）感染的欧洲熊蜂（Bombus terrestris）为模式系统（model system），结合分群设计（split-colony design），探究幼虫饲养阶段的寄生虫环境对成虫抗性的影响。研究结果显示，基因型特异性交互作用得以维持，而成虫抗性未受影响。这表明熊蜂-锥虫交互作用的环境依赖性并非普遍存在，而尚未被阐明的限制因素，将在这类环境偏离下维持标准的协同进化动态（co-evolutionary dynamics）。