No evidence for social immunity in co-founding queen associations.
Details
State: Public
Version: Final published version
Serval ID
serval:BIB_E1AAAC72D0B3
Type
Article: article from journal or magazin.
Collection
Publications
Institution
Title
No evidence for social immunity in co-founding queen associations.
Journal
Scientific reports
ISSN
2045-2322 (Electronic)
ISSN-L
2045-2322
Publication state
Published
Issued date
24/11/2017
Peer-reviewed
Oui
Volume
7
Number
1
Pages
16262
Language
english
Notes
Publication types: Journal Article ; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Publication Status: epublish
Publication Status: epublish
Abstract
Ant queens often associate to found new colonies, yet the benefits of this behaviour remain unclear. A major hypothesis is that queens founding in groups are protected by social immunity and can better resist disease than solitary queens, due to mutual grooming, sharing of antimicrobials, or higher genetic diversity among their workers. We tested this hypothesis by manipulating the number of queens in incipient colonies of Lasius niger and measuring their resistance to the fungal entomopathogen Metarhizium brunneum. We found no evidence for social immunity in associations of founding queens. First, co-founding queens engaged in self-grooming, but performed very little allo-grooming or trophallaxis. Second, co-founding queens did not exhibit higher pathogen resistance than solitary queens, and their respective workers did not differ in disease resistance. Finally, queens founding in groups increased their investment in a component of individual immunity, as expected if they do not benefit from social immunity but respond to a higher risk of disease. Overall, our results provide no evidence that joint colony founding by L. niger queens increases their ability to resist fungal pathogens.
Keywords
Animals, Ants/physiology, Behavior, Animal/physiology, Female, Reproduction/physiology, Social Behavior
Pubmed
Web of science
Open Access
Yes
Create date
01/11/2017 23:56
Last modification date
21/11/2022 9:30