Data from: Correlational selection on pro- and anti-inflammatory effectors

Parasites impose a permanent threat for hosts. As a consequence, immune defenses are important for host fitness. However, the immune response can also produce self-damage and impair host fitness if not properly regulated. Effectors that up- and down-regulate the immune response should, therefore, evolve in concert, and be under the action of correlational selection. To address this issue, we assessed the shape of the selection operating on pro- and anti-inflammatory effectors following an inflammatory challenge in laboratory mice. We found that selection acts on the combination of these two traits as individuals that produced large amount of pro-inflammatory cytokines could achieve relatively high fitness (survival) only if also producing a large amount of anti-inflammatory effectors. To our knowledge, this is the first study providing evidence for correlational selection on immunity.

寄生虫对宿主构成持续性威胁。因此，免疫防御对宿主适合度（fitness）至关重要。然而，若免疫应答未得到恰当调控，其可能引发自身损伤，进而损害宿主适合度。因此，上调与下调免疫应答的免疫效应因子（effector）应当协同演化，并处于相关选择（correlational selection）的作用之下。为解决这一研究问题，本研究针对实验小鼠经炎症刺激后，作用于促炎与抗炎效应因子的选择压力模式展开评估。研究结果显示，选择压力作用于这两类性状的组合：仅当同时大量产生抗炎效应因子时，分泌大量促炎细胞因子（cytokine）的个体，方能获得相对较高的适合度（存活率）。据我们所知，本研究首次为免疫相关性状的相关选择提供了实证依据。