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10-Minute Presentation

Physiology, Biochemistry, and Toxicology

10-min: PBT, Physiology

Down with the sickness: How does population density affect immune strategies and migratory ability of migratory locusts?

Tuesday, November 11, 2025
10:24 AM - 10:36 AM Pacific
Location: Oregon Convention Center, F152, OCC
Oral Presentation
Phenotypic plasticity allows organisms with the same genomes to survive in different environments by changing fitness-related traits depending on environmental cues. Locusts are a model organism to study plasticity. In their swarming phenotype, termed the gregarious phase, there is a strong selective pressure to migrate long distances. In their solitarious phase, they avoid conspecifics and are cryptic. As both immune function and flight are resource-intensive activities, we would predict that these traits may tradeoff. However, the potential tradeoffs between immune response and flight, or how these tradeoffs might differ between the phases, has not been tested in locusts. To test these questions, we gave Migratory Locusts (Locusta migratoria) injections of saline or laminarin, to simulate a fungal infection and waited three hours to mount an immune response. Locusts were moved to an environmental chamber with wind tunnels and were either mounted with magnets to a wind tunnel, or left in the same room an individual tube. Individuals flew as long as study immune activity, we measured pro-phenol oxidase, phenol oxidase, and counted hemocytes. We found that gregarious locusts flew longer than their solitarious counterparts, and that flight duration was significantly affected by laminarin injection. Injection with laminarin and phase differently affected immune responses. These results support that locusts of different phases have different migratory abilities, and respond differently to perceived fungal infection.