Differential maternal contributions to termite progeny in the face of disease

Differential resource allocation to offspring represents one way in which parents influence their progeny’s phenotype and survival.  This is particularly significant if parents and their progeny exploit stressful environments such as nesting in areas with high microbial activity.  Because termites nest within and feed on decayed wood, they likely live under extensive pathogenic constraints. Theoretically, such parents could contribute different amounts of metabolites to their unborn offspring as to ensure that the next generation is better equipped to cope with potential future pathogenic risks. I hypothesize that Zootermoposis angusticollis termite queens will allocate different amounts of proteins to their embryos and young instar larvae following their own exposure to pathogenic bacteria. Proteins are an important resource that impact somatic growth, developmental rates, metabolism, and immunocompetence. Hence, we are quantifying total protein content of embryos and first instar larvae (using a Bradford assay), their antimicrobial activity, and phenoloxidase levels across four different maternal treatments: naive (untreated), control (saline-injected), vaccinated (injected with heat-killed Serratia marscescens), and challenged (injected with 200 cells  of live S. marscescens). Collected data is currently being analyzed for protein content and antimicrobial activity as phenoloxidase levels are not measureable in embryos.