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Rethinking vector immunology: the role of environmental temperature in shaping resistance

Nature Reviews Microbiology volume 10, pages 869–876 (2012)Cite this article

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Abstract

Recent ecological research has revealed that environmental factors can strongly affect insect immunity and influence the outcome of host–parasite interactions. To date, however, most studies examining immune function in mosquitoes have ignored environmental variability. We argue that one such environmental variable, temperature, influences both vector immunity and the parasite itself. As temperatures in the field can vary greatly from the ambient temperature in the laboratory, it will be essential to take temperature into account when studying vector immunology.

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Figure 1: Environmental temperature profoundly affects the rates of a range of humoral and cellular immune responses.
Figure 2: Changes in ambient temperature differentially affect two parasite traits.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank members of the Thomas, Read and Julian F. Hillyer laboratory groups for discussion, and D. Kroczynski and J. Teeple for insectary support. The content of this article is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the US National Institute of General Medical Sciences, the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases or the US National Institutes of Health (NIH). Work in the authors' laboratories is funded, in part, by a grant from the US Pennsylvania Department of Health using Tobacco Settlement Funds. The Pennsylvania Department of Health specifically disclaims responsibility for any analyses, interpretations or conclusions. Work in the authors' laboratories was also funded by the following: the US National Science Foundation (NSF)–NIH Ecology of Infectious Diseases programme (grant EF-0914384) and the NIH R21 programme (grant AI096036-01).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Entomology, Courtney C. Murdock, Krijn P. Paaijmans and Matthew B. Thomas are at the Merkle Laboratory, Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics, Pennsylvania State University, Orchard Road, University Park, State College, Pennsylvania 16802, USA.,

    Courtney C. Murdock, Krijn P. Paaijmans & Matthew B. Thomas

  2. Department of Biology, Andrew F. Read is at the Millennium Science Complex, Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics, Pennsylvania State University, Pollock Road, University Park, State College, Pennsylvania 16802, USA.,

    Andrew F. Read

  3. Department of Entomology, Diana Cox-Foster is at the Agricultural Sciences and Industries Building, Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics, Pennsylvania State University, Curtin Road, University Park, State College, Pennsylvania 16802, USA.,

    Diana Cox-Foster

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  1. Courtney C. Murdock
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  2. Krijn P. Paaijmans
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  3. Diana Cox-Foster
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  4. Andrew F. Read
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Correspondence to Courtney C. Murdock or Matthew B. Thomas.

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Supplementary information S1 (table)

Ambient temperature shapes a suite of phenotypes in a diversity of parasite taxa (PDF 307 kb)

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Murdock, C., Paaijmans, K., Cox-Foster, D. et al. Rethinking vector immunology: the role of environmental temperature in shaping resistance. Nat Rev Microbiol 10, 869–876 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrmicro2900

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