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2014 ; 281
(1792
): ä Nephropedia Template TP
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Foster carers influence brood pathogen resistance in ants
#MMPMID25143036
Purcell J
; Chapuisat M
Proc Biol Sci
2014[Oct]; 281
(1792
): ä PMID25143036
show ga
Social organisms face a high risk of epidemics, and respond to this threat by
combining efficient individual and collective defences against pathogens. An
intriguing and little studied feature of social animals is that individual
pathogen resistance may depend not only on genetic or maternal factors, but also
on the social environment during development. Here, we used a cross-fostering
experiment to investigate whether the pathogen resistance of individual ant
workers was shaped by their own colony of origin or by the colony of origin of
their carers. The origin of care-giving workers significantly influenced the
ability of newly eclosed cross-fostered Formica selysi workers to resist the
fungal entomopathogen Beauveria bassiana. In particular, carers that were more
resistant to the fungal entomopathogen reared more resistant workers. This effect
occurred in the absence of post-infection social interactions, such as
trophallaxis and allogrooming. The colony of origin of eggs significantly
influenced the survival of the resulting individuals in both control and pathogen
treatments. There was no significant effect of the social organization (i.e.
whether colonies contain a single or multiple queens) of the colony of origin of
either carers or eggs. Our experiment reveals that social interactions during
development play a central role in moulding the resistance of emerging workers.