The general development of immune response in the short and long term is a product of the antigenic environment in which a species resides. Colonization of a novel antigenic environment by a species would be expected to alter the immune system. Animals that successfully adapt their immune responses will successfully colonize new locations. However, founder events associated with colonization by limited numbers of individuals from a source population will constrain adaptability. How these contradicting forces shape immunity in widely distributed species is unknown. The western house mouse (Mus musculus domesticus) spread globally from the Indo-Pakistani cradle, often in association with human migration and settlement. In the present study, we tested the hypothesis that wild-derived outbred laboratory populations of house mice from their original range (Iran) and historically recent European invasive populations (from France and Germany) present differences in immune functional diversity corresponding to recent historical founder events in Europe and movement to novel antigenic environments. We found that (1) European mice had lower total white blood cell (WBC) counts but higher immunoglobulin E concentrations than their Iranian counterparts, and (2) there were no significant differences in the measured immunological parameters among European populations. The results indicate that founder events in European mice and selection pressure exerted by the composition of local parasitic helminth communities underlie the observed patterns.
Keywords: Founder effect; Immunoglobulins; Invasive species; Mus musculus domesticus; White blood cells.