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Evidence for trans‐generational medication in nature
Author(s) -
Lefèvre Thierry,
Oliver Lindsay,
Hunter Mark D.,
De Roode Jacobus C.
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
ecology letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 6.852
H-Index - 265
eISSN - 1461-0248
pISSN - 1461-023X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1461-0248.2010.01537.x
Subject(s) - offspring , disease , biology , host (biology) , natural selection , ecology , zoology , medicine , pregnancy , environmental health , population , genetics , pathology
Ecology Letters (2010) 13: 1485–1493 Abstract Parasites pose a serious threat to host fitness, and natural selection should favour host traits that reduce infection or disease symptoms. Here, we provide the first evidence of trans‐generational medication, in which animals actively use medicine to mitigate disease in their offspring. We studied monarch butterflies and their virulent protozoan parasites, and found that neither caterpillars nor adult butterflies could cure themselves of disease. Instead, adult butterflies preferentially laid their eggs on toxic plants that reduced parasite growth and disease in their offspring caterpillars. It has often been suggested that sick animals may use medication to cure themselves of disease, but evidence for the use of medication in nature has so far been scarce. Our results provide evidence that infected animals may indeed use medicine as a defence against parasites, and that such medication may target an individual’s offspring rather than the individual itself.