Presentation Details
| Food, Sickness, and Sociality: How Diet and Inflammation Interact to Influence Social Behavior? Lauren E Shinn, Cristina C Ledón-Rettig, . Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, USA |
Abstract
Amphibians are the most threatened vertebrate class, with infectious disease serving as a prominent driver of their global decline. Characterizing amphibian immune function and its behavioral consequences is critical for understanding their vulnerability. To investigate this, I raised Spea bombifrons (plains spadefoot toad) tadpoles on one of two diets: a detritus-based diet or a novel shrimp diet. These diets are known to induce morphological and behavioral changes in Spea spp. I assessed social preference behavior in tadpoles both in the presence and absence of food. I then administered an immune challenge using lipopolysaccharide (LPS) derived from E. coli, which mimics a bacterial infection and induces systemic inflammation, before re-administering the social preference assay to determine whether immune activation alters social behavior. Social preference indexes and total distance traveled were quantified over 10-minute trials. These results demonstrate how immune activation and diet interact to shape social behavior, highlighting a potential pathway for environmental variation in nutrition to influence disease responses in threatened amphibians.
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No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author.
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