SGER: Parental Behavior and the Evolution of Disease Resistance

This project will examine the evolution of resistance to pathogens and its interface with behavioral phenomena involved in the choice of mates and parental care. The central question asks how differences in selection on males and females has affected the ability to resist disease. Based on differences in the investments made by males and females in providing for offspring theory predicts a trade-off between disease resistance and reproduction. Zuk will investigate the immune responses in field crickets where selection for investments in reproduction as opposed to investments in disease resistance are expected to be more pronounced in males than in females. Zuk predicts that males will be less able to resist disease than females. In vertebrates it widely known that this is the case. This research will pioneer such studies in invertebrates that will therefore allow the development of a research methodology providing the potential to examine these questions in greater depth than previously possible. This research will provide a powerful test of the theoretically predicted differences in the sexes in disease and parasite resistance due, ultimately, to differences in parental investment. It is an important step in understanding the interface between molecular and physiological mechanisms and evolutionary process as mediated by behavior.