Social transfer of pathogenic fungus promotes active immunisation in ant colonies

Konrad M, Vyleta M, Theis F, Stock M, Tragust S, Klatt M, Drescher V, Marr C, Ugelvig LV, Cremer S. 2012. Social transfer of pathogenic fungus promotes active immunisation in ant colonies. PLoS Biology. 10(4), e1001300.

Download
OA IST-2012-96-v1+1_journal.pbio.1001300.pdf 674.23 KB [Published Version]

Journal Article | Published | English

Scopus indexed
Department
Abstract
Due to the omnipresent risk of epidemics, insect societies have evolved sophisticated disease defences at the individual and colony level. An intriguing yet little understood phenomenon is that social contact to pathogen-exposed individuals reduces susceptibility of previously naive nestmates to this pathogen. We tested whether such social immunisation in Lasius ants against the entomopathogenic fungus Metarhizium anisopliae is based on active upregulation of the immune system of nestmates following contact to an infectious individual or passive protection via transfer of immune effectors among group members—that is, active versus passive immunisation. We found no evidence for involvement of passive immunisation via transfer of antimicrobials among colony members. Instead, intensive allogrooming behaviour between naive and pathogen-exposed ants before fungal conidia firmly attached to their cuticle suggested passage of the pathogen from the exposed individuals to their nestmates. By tracing fluorescence-labelled conidia we indeed detected frequent pathogen transfer to the nestmates, where they caused low-level infections as revealed by growth of small numbers of fungal colony forming units from their dissected body content. These infections rarely led to death, but instead promoted an enhanced ability to inhibit fungal growth and an active upregulation of immune genes involved in antifungal defences (defensin and prophenoloxidase, PPO). Contrarily, there was no upregulation of the gene cathepsin L, which is associated with antibacterial and antiviral defences, and we found no increased antibacterial activity of nestmates of fungus-exposed ants. This indicates that social immunisation after fungal exposure is specific, similar to recent findings for individual-level immune priming in invertebrates. Epidemiological modeling further suggests that active social immunisation is adaptive, as it leads to faster elimination of the disease and lower death rates than passive immunisation. Interestingly, humans have also utilised the protective effect of low-level infections to fight smallpox by intentional transfer of low pathogen doses (“variolation” or “inoculation”).
Publishing Year
Date Published
2012-04-03
Journal Title
PLoS Biology
Publisher
Public Library of Science
Acknowledgement
Funding for this project was obtained by the German Research Foundation DFG (http://www.dfg.de/en/index.jsp) as an Individual Research Grant (CR118/2-1 to SC) and the European Research Council (http://erc.europa.eu/) in form of two ERC Starting Grants (ERC-2009-StG240371-SocialVaccines to SC and ERC-2010-StG259294-LatentCauses to FJT). In addition, the Junge Akademie (Young Academy of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities and the National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina (http://www.diejungeakademie.de/english/i​ndex.html) funded this joint Antnet project of SC and FJT. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
Volume
10
Issue
4
Article Number
e1001300
IST-REx-ID

Cite this

Konrad M, Vyleta M, Theis F, et al. Social transfer of pathogenic fungus promotes active immunisation in ant colonies. PLoS Biology. 2012;10(4). doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.1001300
Konrad, M., Vyleta, M., Theis, F., Stock, M., Tragust, S., Klatt, M., … Cremer, S. (2012). Social transfer of pathogenic fungus promotes active immunisation in ant colonies. PLoS Biology. Public Library of Science. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.1001300
Konrad, Matthias, Meghan Vyleta, Fabian Theis, Miriam Stock, Simon Tragust, Martina Klatt, Verena Drescher, Carsten Marr, Line V Ugelvig, and Sylvia Cremer. “Social Transfer of Pathogenic Fungus Promotes Active Immunisation in Ant Colonies.” PLoS Biology. Public Library of Science, 2012. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.1001300.
M. Konrad et al., “Social transfer of pathogenic fungus promotes active immunisation in ant colonies,” PLoS Biology, vol. 10, no. 4. Public Library of Science, 2012.
Konrad M, Vyleta M, Theis F, Stock M, Tragust S, Klatt M, Drescher V, Marr C, Ugelvig LV, Cremer S. 2012. Social transfer of pathogenic fungus promotes active immunisation in ant colonies. PLoS Biology. 10(4), e1001300.
Konrad, Matthias, et al. “Social Transfer of Pathogenic Fungus Promotes Active Immunisation in Ant Colonies.” PLoS Biology, vol. 10, no. 4, e1001300, Public Library of Science, 2012, doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.1001300.
All files available under the following license(s):
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0):
Main File(s)
Access Level
OA Open Access
Date Uploaded
2018-12-12
MD5 Checksum
4ebacefd9fbab5c68adf829124115fd1


Export

Marked Publications

Open Data ISTA Research Explorer

Search this title in

Google Scholar