Pathogen evasion of social immunity
Stock M, Milutinovic B, Hönigsberger M, Grasse AV, Wiesenhofer F, Kampleitner N, Narasimhan M, Schmitt T, Cremer S. 2023. Pathogen evasion of social immunity. Nature Ecology and Evolution. 7, 450–460.
Download
Journal Article
| Published
| English
Scopus indexed
Author
Department
Abstract
Treating sick group members is a hallmark of collective disease defence in vertebrates and invertebrates alike. Despite substantial effects on pathogen fitness and epidemiology, it is still largely unknown how pathogens react to the selection pressure imposed by care intervention. Using social insects and pathogenic fungi, we here performed a serial passage experiment in the presence or absence of colony members, which provide social immunity by grooming off infectious spores from exposed individuals. We found specific effects on pathogen diversity, virulence and transmission. Under selection of social immunity, pathogens invested into higher spore production, but spores were less virulent. Notably, they also elicited a lower grooming response in colony members, compared with spores from the individual host selection lines. Chemical spore analysis suggested that the spores from social selection lines escaped the caregivers’ detection by containing lower levels of ergosterol, a key fungal membrane component. Experimental application of chemically pure ergosterol indeed induced sanitary grooming, supporting its role as a microbe-associated cue triggering host social immunity against fungal pathogens. By reducing this detection cue, pathogens were able to evade the otherwise very effective collective disease defences of their social hosts.
Publishing Year
Date Published
2023-03-01
Journal Title
Nature Ecology and Evolution
Publisher
Springer Nature
Acknowledgement
We thank B. M. Steinwender, N. V. Meyling and J. Eilenberg for the fungal strains; J. Anaya-Rojas for statistical advice; the Social Immunity team at ISTA for ant collection and experimental help, in particular H. Leitner, and the ISTA Lab Support Facility for general laboratory support; D. Ebert, H. Schulenburg and J. Heinze for continued project discussion; and M. Sixt, R. Roemhild and the Social Immunity team for comments on the manuscript. The study was funded by the German Research Foundation (CR118/3-1) within the Framework of the Priority Program SPP 1399, and the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme (No. 771402; EPIDEMICSonCHIP), both to S.C.
Acknowledged SSUs
Volume
7
Page
450-460
eISSN
IST-REx-ID
Cite this
Stock M, Milutinovic B, Hönigsberger M, et al. Pathogen evasion of social immunity. Nature Ecology and Evolution. 2023;7:450-460. doi:10.1038/s41559-023-01981-6
Stock, M., Milutinovic, B., Hönigsberger, M., Grasse, A. V., Wiesenhofer, F., Kampleitner, N., … Cremer, S. (2023). Pathogen evasion of social immunity. Nature Ecology and Evolution. Springer Nature. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-023-01981-6
Stock, Miriam, Barbara Milutinovic, Michaela Hönigsberger, Anna V Grasse, Florian Wiesenhofer, Niklas Kampleitner, Madhumitha Narasimhan, Thomas Schmitt, and Sylvia Cremer. “Pathogen Evasion of Social Immunity.” Nature Ecology and Evolution. Springer Nature, 2023. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-023-01981-6.
M. Stock et al., “Pathogen evasion of social immunity,” Nature Ecology and Evolution, vol. 7. Springer Nature, pp. 450–460, 2023.
Stock M, Milutinovic B, Hönigsberger M, Grasse AV, Wiesenhofer F, Kampleitner N, Narasimhan M, Schmitt T, Cremer S. 2023. Pathogen evasion of social immunity. Nature Ecology and Evolution. 7, 450–460.
Stock, Miriam, et al. “Pathogen Evasion of Social Immunity.” Nature Ecology and Evolution, vol. 7, Springer Nature, 2023, pp. 450–60, doi:10.1038/s41559-023-01981-6.
All files available under the following license(s):
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0):
Main File(s)
File Name
2023_NatureEcoEvo_Stock.pdf
1.60 MB
Access Level
Open Access
Date Uploaded
2023-08-16
MD5 Checksum
8244f4650a0e7aeea488d1bcd4a31702
External material:
Press Release
Description
News on ISTA website
Export
Marked PublicationsOpen Data ISTA Research Explorer
Web of Science
View record in Web of Science®Sources
PMID: 36732670
PubMed | Europe PMC