Rivera Rea, JimenaGonzález Morales, Juan CarlosFajardo, VíctorMegia Palma, Rodrigo ManuelBastiaans, ElizabethManjarrez, Javier2024-12-192024-12-192022Rivera-Rea, J., González-Morales, J.C., Fajardo, V. et al. Phenological variation in parasite load and inflammatory response in a lizard with an asynchronous reproductive cycle. Sci Nat 109, 34 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-022-01793-x0028-104210.1007/s00114-022-01793-xhttps://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/113042We are grateful to the Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (Ph.D. degree scholarship JRR and JCGM) and the Secretaría del Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales for the permits to collect animals (SGPA/DGVS/02407/15). We also thank Dra. Erendira Quintana Sánchez for field assistance. The authors thank the two anonymous reviewers for their comments to improve the manuscript. This work was funded by Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (Ph.D. degree scholarship Jimena Rivera-Rea).We present the first study that compares phenological variation in parasite load and inflammatory response in a lizard with asynchronous male and female gonadal cycles. Other studies have used many species with seasonal and synchronous reproductive cycles, in which it is difficult to decouple the effects of internal and external factors that can affect parasite abundance in each sex. Species with asynchronous reproductive cycles provide the opportunity to study the effects of seasonality and reproductive condition separately, but few studies have documented variation in parasite abundance in these species. We made an extensive comparison of parasite load and inflammatory response of the lizard Sceloporus torquatus, a species with asynchronous reproductive cycles, throughout its active period. We hypothesized that the parasite load would be higher in the period of maximum gonadal activity for each sex, negatively related to body condition and inflammatory response. Our results partially support the hypothesis; males had more parasites in summer than in spring and autumn, while females had more parasites in spring and summer than in autumn; however, we do not find a relationship between parasite load, body condition and inflammatory response. Our results indicated that host-parasite interactions are complex and depend upon both environmental and internal factors. Therefore, longer-term studies may provide a more comprehensive picture of host-parasite dynamics in populations of wild lizards.engjournal article1432-1904https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-022-01793-xhttps://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00114-022-01793-xrestricted access591.1576.89598.112551.506.8Parasite loadInfammatory responseGonadal cycleAsynchronous cycleSceloporus torquatusZoologíaReptilesFisiología animal (Biología)2401 Biología Animal (Zoología)2401.12 Parasitología Animal2401.13 Fisiología Animal2401.16 Herpetología