Hidden costs of infection: Chronic malaria accelerates telomere degradation and senescence in wild birds

作者：Asghar, M.; Hasselquist, D.^*; Hansson, B.; Zehtindjiev, P.; Westerdahl, H.; Bensch, S.

来源：Science, 2015, 347(6220): 436-438.

DOI：10.1126/science.1261121

• GREAT REED WARBLERS
• ACROCEPHALUS-ARUNDINACEUS
• AVIAN MALARIA
• PARASITES
• DYNAMICS
• LENGTH
• MORTALITY
• POLYGYNY
• ECOLOGY
• COMPLEX

Recovery from infection is not always complete, and mild chronic infection may persist. Although the direct costs of such infections are apparently small, the potential for any long-term effects on Darwinian fitness is poorly understood. In a wild population of great reed warblers, we found that low-level chronic malaria infection reduced life span as well as the lifetime number and quality of offspring. These delayed fitness effects of malaria appear to be mediated by telomere degradation, a result supported by controlled infection experiments on birds in captivity. The results of this study imply that chronic infection may be causing a series of small adverse effects that accumulate and eventually impair phenotypic quality and Darwinian fitness.

• 出版日期2015-1-23