Abstract
The sexes show profound differences in responses to infection and the development of autoimmunity. Dimorphisms in immune responses are ubiquitous across taxa, from arthropods to vertebrates. Drosophila melanogaster shows strong sex dimorphisms in immune system responses at baseline, upon pathogenic challenge, and over aging. We have performed an exhaustive survey of peer-reviewed literature on Drosophila immunity, and present a database of publications indicating the sex(es) analyzed in each study. While we found a growing interest in the community in adult immunity and in reporting both sexes, the main body of work in this field uses only one sex, or does not stratify by sex. We synthesize evidence for sexually dimorphic responses to bacterial, viral, and fungal infections. Dimorphisms may be mediated by distinct immune compartments, and we review work on sex differences in behavioral, epithelial, cellular, and systemic (fat body-mediated) immunity. Emerging work on sexually dimorphic aging of immune tissues, immune senescence, and inflammation are examined. We consider evolutionary drivers for sex differences in immune investment, highlight the features of Drosophila biology that make it particularly amenable to studies of immune dimorphisms, and discuss areas for future exploration.
Highlights
Sex governs physiology: differences between males and females are strong drivers of variance in phenotype within any population, and can eclipse effects of geography or genotype [1, 2]
The survey information is available as a searchable table, intended as a resource for locating data on immunity in both sexes (Table S1). Integrating information from this wealth of published data, we review what is reported about sex dimorphisms in immunity in Drosophila
We understand relatively little about immune dimorphisms in Drosophila, despite their apparent prevalence and magnitude
Summary
Sex governs physiology: differences between males and females are strong drivers of variance in phenotype within any population, and can eclipse effects of geography or genotype [1, 2]. Comparing, both sexes in functional and mechanistic studies of Drosophila immunity will add to this body of work to give important insight to several fields, in addition to better understanding host-pathogen interactions from an evolutionary ecology perspective. It will, for example, offer translatable information on disease vector biology, where sex is a crucial variable for exposure, transmission, and control strategies of insect disease vectors such as mosquitos [28,29,30]. This, in combination with the strong conservation of immune signaling pathways (as exemplified by Toll/TLRs), makes Drosophila a powerful model for sex-specific genetic regulation of molecular immunity [23, 42]
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