Abstract
Ecoimmunology is a rapidly developing field that explores how the environment shapes immune function, which in turn influences host-parasite relationships and disease outcomes. Host immune defence is a key fitness determinant because it underlies the capacity of animals to resist or tolerate potential infections. Importantly, immune function can be suppressed, depressed, reconfigured or stimulated by exposure to rapidly changing environmental drivers like temperature, pollutants and food availability. Thus, hosts may experience trade-offs resulting from altered investment in immune function under environmental stressors. As such, approaches in ecoimmunology can provide powerful tools to assist in the conservation of wildlife. Here, we provide case studies that explore the diverse ways that ecoimmunology can inform and advance conservation efforts, from understanding how Galapagos finches will fare with introduced parasites, to using methods from human oncology to design vaccines against a transmissible cancer in Tasmanian devils. In addition, we discuss the future of ecoimmunology and present 10 questions that can help guide this emerging field to better inform conservation decisions and biodiversity protection. From better linking changes in immune function to disease outcomes under different environmental conditions, to understanding how individual variation contributes to disease dynamics in wild populations, there is immense potential for ecoimmunology to inform the conservation of imperilled hosts in the face of new and re-emerging pathogens, in addition to improving the detection and management of emerging potential zoonoses.
Highlights
Cite as: Ohmer MEB, Costantini D, Czirják GA, Downs CJ, Ferguson LV, Flies A, Franklin CE, Kayigwe AN, Knutie S, Richards-Zawacki CL, Cramp RL (2021) Applied ecoimmunology: using immunological tools to improve conservation efforts in a changing world
We provide case studies that explore the diverse ways that ecoimmunology can inform and advance conservation efforts, from understanding how Galapagos finches will fare with introduced parasites, to using methods from human oncology to design vaccines against a transmissible cancer in Tasmanian devils
From better linking changes in immune function to disease outcomes under different environmental conditions, to understanding how individual variation contributes to disease dynamics in wild populations, there is immense potential for ecoimmunology to inform the conservation of imperilled hosts in the face of new and re-emerging pathogens, in addition to improving the detection and management of emerging potential zoonoses
Summary
Birds in the Galapagos Islands have faced many novel challenges, including introduced parasites and pathogens, during the Anthropocene (Wikelski et al, 2004). Higher antibody levels in parasitized females correlated negatively with parasite abundance (Koop et al, 2013) These results suggest that this acquired immune response is not developed until juvenile finches leave their nests and that effective parasite resistance could depend significantly on the brooding mother. CRISPR/Cas was used to completely knockout MHC-I from DFT1 cells, and this cell line was used to show that MHC-I proteins are a major serum antibody target in devils that had immunotherapyinduced or natural DFT1 regressions (Pye et al, 2016; Margres et al, 2018; Ong et al, 2021) These results suggest that low MHC-I diversity and reduced MHCI expression are important for transmissible cancer cells, but additional mechanisms are likely employed to evade immune defences. We suggest that studies aiming to make these predictions should consider that both hosts and pathogens/beneficial symbionts to respond to environmental change
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