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Credit: Image courtesy of Michael T. Siva-Jothy and William Hentley.
A study examines links among feeding cues, mating-associated infection, and immune-system upregulation in female bed bugs. Insects can adapt immune responses to defend against predicted infections. However, whether female bed bugs upregulate immune responses when they anticipate mating, which is linked to increased infection risk due to traumatic insemination, remains unclear. Michael T. Siva-Jothy, Ewan Harney, and colleagues examined changes to the immune systems of female bed bugs exposed to feeding cycles associated with traumatic insemination; female bed bugs undergo high levels of traumatic insemination when they feed at rates that support maximum egg production. The authors detected lysozyme-like activity (LLA) resulting in induced antibacterial humoral immune responses in female bed bugs fed at regular intervals every 7 days, whether or not they received a stimulus mimicking traumatic insemination. When female bed bugs mated in fixed durations, they showed an 18.5% increase in LLA when they received predictable access to food, whereas female bed bugs on an unpredictable feeding schedule exhibited a 51% decrease in LLA. Compared with unpredictable feeding, predictable feeding was tied to a 22% increase in longevity. The findings suggest that reproductive immune anticipation in female bed bugs may be influenced by hunger and feeding cycles, according to the authors.
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Article #19-04539: "Female bed bugs (Cimex lectularius L) anticipate the immunological consequences of traumatic insemination via feeding cues," by Michael T. Siva-Jothy et al.
MEDIA CONTACT: Michael T. Siva-Jothy, University of Sheffield, UNITED KINGDOM; tel: +44-114-222-0029; email: <m.siva-jothy@sheffield.ac.uk>
Journal
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences