Ann T. Tate, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA

Immune system optimization in a variable world

Ann T. Tate, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA

A maximal immune response is not always an optimal one. Immune responses are energetically costly and prone to causing collateral damage to the host. Moreover, arms of the immune response effective against a parasite may render hosts more susceptible to others, and constraints at the genetic level could limit a response or force trade-offs with other life history traits. In this seminar, I will present experimental and theoretical work that takes advantage of natural immunological variation among flour beetle populations and other insect species to examine the roles of coinfection, metamorphosis, and genetic pleiotropy in shaping the evolution of innate immune systems and host susceptibility to infection.