Title
The energetic cost of mounting an immune response for Pallas's longtongued bat (Glossophaga soricina)
Date Issued
01 January 2018
Access level
open access
Resource Type
journal article
Author(s)
Cabrera-Martínez L.
Herrera M.
Cruz-Neto A.
Publisher(s)
PeerJ Inc.
Abstract
The acute phase response (APR) is the first line of defense of the vertebrate immune system against pathogens. Mounting an immune response is believed to be energetically costly but direct measures of metabolic rate during immune challenges contradict this assumption. The energetic cost of APR for birds is higher than for rodents, suggesting that this response is less expensive for mammals. However, the particularly large increase in metabolic rate after APR activation for a piscivorous bat (Myotis vivesi) suggests that immune response might be unusually costly for bats. Here we quantified the energetic cost and body mass change associated with APR for the nectarivorous Pallas's long-tongued bat (Glossophaga soricina). Activation of the APR resulted in a short-term decrease in body mass and an increase in resting metabolic rate (RMR) with a total energy cost of only 2% of the total energy expenditure estimated for G. soricina. This increase in RMR was far from the large increase measured for piscivorous bats; rather, it was similar to the highest values reported for birds. Overall, our results suggest that the costs of APR for bats may vary interspecifically. Measurement of the energy cost of vertebrate immune response is limited to a few species and further work is warranted to evaluate its significance for an animal's energy budget.
Volume
2018
Issue
6
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Bioquímica, Biología molecular
Zoología, Ornitología, Entomología, ciencias biológicas del comportamiento
Subjects
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-85048089181
Source
PeerJ
ISSN of the container
21678359
Sponsor(s)
This work was supported by a grant from the bilateral program CNPq/CONACYT (# 490586/2013-9) to L. Gerardo Herrera M. and Ariovaldo P. Cruz-Neto. Lucía V. Cabrera-Martínez received a master grant from the Conselho Nacional de Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento Tecnológico (#161027/2014-8). L. Gerardo Herrera M. was supported by research grants from Dirección General de Asuntos del Personal Académico (DGAPA # IN202113) and by the PASPA-DGAPA program (#062-2014) of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. Ariovaldo P. Cruz-Neto was funded by a grant from Fundac¸ão de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (# 2008/57687-0). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
The following grant information was disclosed by the authors: Bilateral program CNPq/CONACYT: # 490586/2013-9. Conselho Nacional de Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento Tecnológico: #161027/2014-8. Dirección General de Asuntos del Personal Académico: DGAPA # IN202113. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México: #062-2014. Fundac¸ão de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo: # 2008/57687-0.
Sources of information:
Directorio de Producción Científica
Scopus