Parasitism in viviparous vertebrates: an overview
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2022-01
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Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla
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"Viviparity is a reproductive mode that has evolved independently in different taxa where offspring develop inside females to ensure gestation. Offspring are provided with a food supply in the egg or through specialized tissues that ensure their development thanks to the specific exchange of nutrients and other components. However, environmental challenges such as parasitism and disease can be a force that limit the host's resources causing physiological, morphological, and behavioural changes that represent an additional cost for both the pregnant female and her offspring. This includes the future reproductive investment on females, sex rate in their offspring, lactation investment in mammals, alterations of birth intervals, the current reproduvtive investment, variation between environments, the activity of the immune system facing immunological challenges, as well as additional factors that can affect the interaction between viviparous females and parasites. Parasites could be a significant mediator of this reproductive mode: parasitized females change their investment in survival and reproduction based on their life history, the environmental factors they are exposed to, and the diversity of parasites they encounter".
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