No evidence of trans-generational immune priming (TGIP) on the survival of an insect with extended parental care
Abstract
Trans-generational immune priming (TGIP), whereby parental pathogen exposure enhances offspring immune performance, is often viewed as an important phenomenon in arthropods. However, recent syntheses suggest that our knowledge of this phenomenon is taxonomically skewed and potentially overestimated due to publication bias, calling for further tests of TGIP in novel taxa. Here, we provide the first experimental test of pre-ovipositional TGIP in Dermaptera using the European earwig, Forficula auricularia, a species characterized by prolonged maternal care and strong sanitary behaviors. Females were immune challenged one to two months before oviposition with either live or heat killed Serratia marcescens, a naturally associated and virulent bacterium, or assigned to control treatments. Resulting offspring were reared under standard conditions until adulthood and then challenged with live S. marcescens, after which survival was monitored for fifteen days. As expected, bacterial challenges strongly reduced offspring survival. However, offspring survival was unaffected by maternal immune challenge, the timing of maternal exposure, or offspring sex, providing no evidence for pre-ovipositional TGIP. Maternal immune challenge also did not influence the likelihood of producing adult offspring, the number of adults produced, or offspring sex ratio. Overall, these results suggest that preovipositional TGIP is absent or undetectable in the F. auricularia-S. marcescens host-pathogen system. We discuss whether this pattern could reflect earwig-specific traits, such as maternal egg and juvenile care and/or their multi-month developmental period. By documenting a robust null result, this study contributes to a more balanced understanding of the evolutionary and ecological constraints shaping TGIP across insects.
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BibTeX
@article{wever2026evidence,
title = {{No evidence of trans-generational immune priming (TGIP) on the survival of an insect with extended parental care}},
author = {Simon de Wever and Julien Verdon and Christine Braquart-Varnier and Joël Meunier},
journal = {Journal of Invertebrate Pathology},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.1016/j.jip.2026.108703},
url = {https://univ-tours.hal.science/hal-05748086v1},
note = {CC BY-NC-ND 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - No evidence of trans-generational immune priming (TGIP) on the survival of an insect with extended parental care
AU - Simon de Wever
AU - Julien Verdon
AU - Christine Braquart-Varnier
AU - Joël Meunier
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/13
JO - Journal of Invertebrate Pathology
DO - 10.1016/j.jip.2026.108703
UR - https://univ-tours.hal.science/hal-05748086v1
AB - Trans-generational immune priming (TGIP), whereby parental pathogen exposure enhances offspring immune performance, is often viewed as an important phenomenon in arthropods. However, recent syntheses suggest that our knowledge of this phenomenon is taxonomically skewed and potentially overestimated due to publication bias, calling for further tests of TGIP in novel taxa. Here, we provide the first experimental test of pre-ovipositional TGIP in Dermaptera using the European earwig, Forficula auricularia, a species characterized by prolonged maternal care and strong sanitary behaviors. Females were immune challenged one to two months before oviposition with either live or heat killed Serratia marcescens, a naturally associated and virulent bacterium, or assigned to control treatments. Resulting offspring were reared under standard conditions until adulthood and then challenged with live S. marcescens, after which survival was monitored for fifteen days. As expected, bacterial challenges strongly reduced offspring survival. However, offspring survival was unaffected by maternal immune challenge, the timing of maternal exposure, or offspring sex, providing no evidence for pre-ovipositional TGIP. Maternal immune challenge also did not influence the likelihood of producing adult offspring, the number of adults produced, or offspring sex ratio. Overall, these results suggest that preovipositional TGIP is absent or undetectable in the F. auricularia-S. marcescens host-pathogen system. We discuss whether this pattern could reflect earwig-specific traits, such as maternal egg and juvenile care and/or their multi-month developmental period. By documenting a robust null result, this study contributes to a more balanced understanding of the evolutionary and ecological constraints shaping TGIP across insects.
SN - 0022-2011
SN - 1096-0805
ER -