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Published on: January 12, 2017
No evidence for an evolutionary trade-off between learning and immunity in a social insect
A Alghamdi1, N E Raine, E Rosato
1Biology Department, University of Leicester, Leicester LE1 7RH, UK.
Abstract:
The immune response affects learning and memory in insects. Given this and the known fitness costs of both the immune system and learning, does an evolutionary trade-off exist between these two systems? We tested this by measuring the learning ability of 12 bumble-bee (Bombus terrestris) colonies in a free-flying paradigm. We then tested their immune response using the zone of inhibition assay. We found a positive relationship between colony learning performance and immune response, that is, fast-learning colonies also show high levels of antimicrobial activity. We conclude that there is no a priori reason to demand an evolutionary relationship between two traits that are linked physiologically.
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