@article{10284,
  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.},
  author       = {Casillas Perez, Barbara E and Pull, Christopher and Naiser, Filip and Naderlinger, Elisabeth and Matas, Jiri and Cremer, Sylvia},
  issn         = {1461-0248},
  journal      = {Ecology Letters},
  number       = {1},
  pages        = {89--100},
  publisher    = {Wiley},
  title        = {{Early queen infection shapes developmental dynamics and induces long-term disease protection in incipient ant colonies}},
  doi          = {10.1111/ele.13907},
  volume       = {25},
  year         = {2022},
}

@article{7224,
  abstract     = {Habitat loss is one of the key drivers of the ongoing decline of biodiversity. However, ecologists still argue about how fragmentation of habitat (independent of habitat loss) affects species richness. The recently proposed habitat amount hypothesis posits that species richness only depends on the total amount of habitat in a local landscape. In contrast, empirical studies report contrasting patterns: some find positive and others negative effects of fragmentation per se on species richness. To explain this apparent disparity, we devise a stochastic, spatially explicit model of competitive species communities in heterogeneous habitats. The model shows that habitat loss and fragmentation have complex effects on species diversity in competitive communities. When the total amount of habitat is large, fragmentation per se tends to increase species diversity, but if the total amount of habitat is small, the situation is reversed: fragmentation per se decreases species diversity.},
  author       = {Rybicki, Joel and Abrego, Nerea and Ovaskainen, Otso},
  issn         = {1461-0248},
  journal      = {Ecology Letters},
  number       = {3},
  pages        = {506--517},
  publisher    = {Wiley},
  title        = {{Habitat fragmentation and species diversity in competitive communities}},
  doi          = {10.1111/ele.13450},
  volume       = {23},
  year         = {2020},
}

@article{7343,
  abstract     = {Coinfections with multiple pathogens can result in complex within‐host dynamics affecting virulence and transmission. While multiple infections are intensively studied in solitary hosts, it is so far unresolved how social host interactions interfere with pathogen competition, and if this depends on coinfection diversity. We studied how the collective disease defences of ants – their social immunity – influence pathogen competition in coinfections of same or different fungal pathogen species. Social immunity reduced virulence for all pathogen combinations, but interfered with spore production only in different‐species coinfections. Here, it decreased overall pathogen sporulation success while increasing co‐sporulation on individual cadavers and maintaining a higher pathogen diversity at the community level. Mathematical modelling revealed that host sanitary care alone can modulate competitive outcomes between pathogens, giving advantage to fast‐germinating, thus less grooming‐sensitive ones. Host social interactions can hence modulate infection dynamics in coinfected group members, thereby altering pathogen communities at the host level and population level.},
  author       = {Milutinovic, Barbara and Stock, Miriam and Grasse, Anna V and Naderlinger, Elisabeth and Hilbe, Christian and Cremer, Sylvia},
  issn         = {1461-0248},
  journal      = {Ecology Letters},
  number       = {3},
  pages        = {565--574},
  publisher    = {Wiley},
  title        = {{Social immunity modulates competition between coinfecting pathogens}},
  doi          = {10.1111/ele.13458},
  volume       = {23},
  year         = {2020},
}