Individuals vary their immune response according to age, sex and the costs

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The sexes face differential immune investment costs as they mature from nest-bound juveniles to independent adults. Credit: Oliver P. Love
The sexes face differential immune investment costs as they mature from nest-bound juveniles to independent adults. Credit: Oliver P. Love
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Is it always good to respond maximally when pathogens or disease strike, or should individuals vary their immune response to balance immediate and future costs? This is the question evolutionary physiologists Oliver Love, Katrina Salvante, James Dale, and Tony Williams asked when they examined how a simple immune response varied at different life stages across the life-span of individual zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata), in a study published in the September issue of the American Naturalist.


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