Early queen infection shapes developmental dynamics and induces long-term disease protection in incipient ant colonies

Casillas Perez BE, Pull C, Naiser F, Naderlinger E, Matas J, Cremer S. 2022. Early queen infection shapes developmental dynamics and induces long-term disease protection in incipient ant colonies. Ecology Letters. 25(1), 89–100.

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Journal Article | Published | English

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Abstract
Infections early in life can have enduring effects on an organism's development and immunity. In this study, we show that this equally applies to developing ‘superorganisms’––incipient social insect colonies. When we exposed newly mated Lasius niger ant queens to a low pathogen dose, their colonies grew more slowly than controls before winter, but reached similar sizes afterwards. Independent of exposure, queen hibernation survival improved when the ratio of pupae to workers was small. Queens that reared fewer pupae before worker emergence exhibited lower pathogen levels, indicating that high brood rearing efforts interfere with the ability of the queen's immune system to suppress pathogen proliferation. Early-life queen pathogen exposure also improved the immunocompetence of her worker offspring, as demonstrated by challenging the workers to the same pathogen a year later. Transgenerational transfer of the queen's pathogen experience to her workforce can hence durably reduce the disease susceptibility of the whole superorganism.
Publishing Year
Date Published
2022-01-01
Journal Title
Ecology Letters
Publisher
Wiley
Acknowledgement
The authors are grateful to G. Tkačik and V. Mireles for advice on data analyses and to A. Schloegl for help using the IST Austria HPC cluster for data processing. The authors thank J. Eilenberg for providing the fungal strain and A.V. Grasse for support with the molecular analysis. The authors also thank the Social Immunity group at IST Austria, in particular B. Milutinović, for discussions throughout and comments on the manuscript.
Acknowledged SSUs
Volume
25
Issue
1
Page
89-100
ISSN
eISSN
IST-REx-ID

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Casillas Perez BE, Pull C, Naiser F, Naderlinger E, Matas J, Cremer S. Early queen infection shapes developmental dynamics and induces long-term disease protection in incipient ant colonies. Ecology Letters. 2022;25(1):89-100. doi:10.1111/ele.13907
Casillas Perez, B. E., Pull, C., Naiser, F., Naderlinger, E., Matas, J., & Cremer, S. (2022). Early queen infection shapes developmental dynamics and induces long-term disease protection in incipient ant colonies. Ecology Letters. Wiley. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13907
Casillas Perez, Barbara E, Christopher Pull, Filip Naiser, Elisabeth Naderlinger, Jiri Matas, and Sylvia Cremer. “Early Queen Infection Shapes Developmental Dynamics and Induces Long-Term Disease Protection in Incipient Ant Colonies.” Ecology Letters. Wiley, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13907.
B. E. Casillas Perez, C. Pull, F. Naiser, E. Naderlinger, J. Matas, and S. Cremer, “Early queen infection shapes developmental dynamics and induces long-term disease protection in incipient ant colonies,” Ecology Letters, vol. 25, no. 1. Wiley, pp. 89–100, 2022.
Casillas Perez BE, Pull C, Naiser F, Naderlinger E, Matas J, Cremer S. 2022. Early queen infection shapes developmental dynamics and induces long-term disease protection in incipient ant colonies. Ecology Letters. 25(1), 89–100.
Casillas Perez, Barbara E., et al. “Early Queen Infection Shapes Developmental Dynamics and Induces Long-Term Disease Protection in Incipient Ant Colonies.” Ecology Letters, vol. 25, no. 1, Wiley, 2022, pp. 89–100, doi:10.1111/ele.13907.
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2022-02-03
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