Disentangling unspecific and specific transgenerational immune priming components in host-parasite interactionsFrida Ben-Ami, Christian Orlic, Roland R. Regoes doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/429498bioRxiv, 9/27/2018Overview and take-home messages:In this study, the authors tackle the topic of transgenerational immune priming in invertebrates. The authors designed a large experiment taking advantage of clonal Daphnia to test whether infecting parental generations with different parasite strains improves the offspring's resistance to that parasite overall and if yes, if they resist that specific strain more effectively than other strains. This experiment essentially tests the specificity of immune priming at a very fine "strain" scale. The results did not support parental infection strain differentially affecting offspring resistance to different strains, suggesting that immune priming is not specific to the strain level in this system. However, a mathematical model the authors developed for that study fits the data exceptionally well, which means this model could potentially be used in a predictive manner for this or similar systems. Additionally, the unexpected result that one strain actually facilitates specific infection in the offspring is surprising and opens the door to additional inquiry and future experimentation. Overall this study is very interesting and well-presented, but there are a few concerns that could be addressed and improved in the next version of the manuscript.