| title: | Costs of immune function, oxidative stress and reproduction in insects |
|---|---|
| reg no: | ETF6473 |
| project type: | Estonian Science Foundation research grant |
| status: | accepted |
| institution: | University of Tartu |
| head of project: | Indrek Ots |
| duration: | 01.01.2005 - 31.12.2008 |
| description: | The project aims could be divided into two major subareas: 1. Questions linked with oxidative stress and immune function and 2. questions linked with copulation costs and immune function. The main questions linked with oxidative stress and immune function are: a) Is oxidative stress accompanied with immune responses energetically costly?, b) Is oxidative stress per se energetically costly?, c) Which part of melanin production is responsible for the costs of immune response?, d) Whether and how oxidative stress affects immune function i.e.is the oxidative stress beneficial? and e) Does oxidative stress incur long-term effects on immune function (i.e. senescence)?. Additionally, several aspects of reproduction costs (especially costs of copulation) will be studied and main questions about copulation costs and immune function are: f) Are there long-term copulation costs and in what it reveals?, g) In what reveal copulation costs in females and males?, h) Are Colorado potato beetles suffering for inbreeding depression? and i) Whether and how previous copulation affects mate preference in next copulations? Explaining the previously unknown aspects of the costs of the immune function, oxidative stress and copulation in insects has a potential impact for further development of basic disciplines. Elucidating the microevolutionary aspects related to immune function of insects bears a potential practical value for interpreting the results of research on pest management. |
| project group | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| no | name | institution | position | |
| 1. | Dalial Freitak | University of Tartu | Ph.D. student | |
| 2. | Indrek Ots | University of Tartu | senior reseacher | |
| 3. | Alo Vanatoa | Institute of Zoology and Botany at Estonian University of Life Sciences | researcher | |