Metabolism influences biochemical networks, and arthropod vectors are endowed with an immune system that affects microbial acquisition, persistence, and transmission to humans and other animals. Here, we aim to persuade the scientific community to expand their interests in immunometabolism beyond mammalian hosts and towards arthropod vectors. Immunometabolism investigates the interplay of metabolism and immunology. We provide a conceptual framework for investigators from diverse disciplines and indicate that relationships between microbes, mammalian hosts and their hematophagous arthropods may result in cost-effective (mutualism) or energetically expensive (parasitism) interactions. We argue that disparate resource allocations between species may partially explain why some microbes act as pathogens when infecting humans and behave as mutualistic or commensal organisms when colonizing arthropod vectors.

代谢影响生化网络，节肢动物载体具有免疫系统，可以影响微生物的获取、存留以及向人类和其他动物的传播。在这里，我们的目标是说服科学界将他们对免疫代谢的兴趣扩大到哺乳动物宿主以外的节肢动物载体。免疫代谢研究代谢和免疫学的相互作用。我们为来自不同学科的研究人员提供了一个概念框架，并表明微生物、哺乳动物宿主及其吸血节肢动物之间的关系可能会导致具有成本效益（互惠）或能量消耗（寄生）的相互作用。