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Immunity is hypothesized to share limited resources with other physiological functions and may mediate life history trade-offs, for example between reproduction and survival. However, vertebrate immune defense is a complex system that consists of three components. To date, no study has assessed all of these components for the same animal model and within a given situation. Previous studies have determined that the acquired immunity of common eiders (Somateria mollissima) is suppressed during incubation. The present paper aims to assess the innate immune response in fasting eiders in relation to their initial body condition. Innate immunity was assessed by measuring plasma nitric oxide (NO) levels, prior to and after injection of lipopolysaccharides (LPS), a method which is easily applicable to many wild animals. Body condition index and corticosterone levels were subsequently determined as indicators of body condition and stress level prior to LPS injection. The innate immune response in eiders did not vary significantly throughout the incubation period. The innate immune response of eiders did not vary significantly in relation to their initial body condition but decreased significantly when corticosterone levels increased. However, NO levels after LPS injection were significantly and positively related to initial body condition, while there was a significant negative relationship with plasma corticosterone levels. Our study suggests that female eiders preserve an effective innate immune response during incubation and this response might be partially determined by the initial body condition.
Immunity is believed to share limited resources with other physiological functions and this may partly account for the fitness costs of reproduction. Previous studies have shown that the acquired immunity of female common eiders (Somateria mollissima
An important issue for the origins of life is how to ensure the accurate maintenance of information in replicating polymers in the face of inevitable errors. We investigate how this maintenance depends on reaction kinetics by incorporating elementary
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We model and calculate the fraction of infected population necessary to reach herd immunity, taking into account the heterogeneity in infectiousness and susceptibility, as well as the correlation between those two parameters. We show that these cause