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Rapid anti-pathogen response in ant societies relies on high genetic diversity

Evolution, Behaviour and Genetics, Biology I, University of Regensburg, Universitätsstrasse 31, 93040 Regensburg, Germany

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Daniel J. C. Kronauer

Museum of Comparative Zoology Labs, Harvard University, 26 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA

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Alexandra Schrempf

Evolution, Behaviour and Genetics, Biology I, University of Regensburg, Universitätsstrasse 31, 93040 Regensburg, Germany

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Jürgen Heinze

Evolution, Behaviour and Genetics, Biology I, University of Regensburg, Universitätsstrasse 31, 93040 Regensburg, Germany

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Sylvia Cremer

Evolution, Behaviour and Genetics, Biology I, University of Regensburg, Universitätsstrasse 31, 93040 Regensburg, Germany

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Line V. Ugelvig

Evolution, Behaviour and Genetics, Biology I, University of Regensburg, Universitätsstrasse 31, 93040 Regensburg, Germany

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Daniel J. C. Kronauer

Museum of Comparative Zoology Labs, Harvard University, 26 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA

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Alexandra Schrempf

Evolution, Behaviour and Genetics, Biology I, University of Regensburg, Universitätsstrasse 31, 93040 Regensburg, Germany

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Jürgen Heinze

Evolution, Behaviour and Genetics, Biology I, University of Regensburg, Universitätsstrasse 31, 93040 Regensburg, Germany

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Sylvia Cremer

Evolution, Behaviour and Genetics, Biology I, University of Regensburg, Universitätsstrasse 31, 93040 Regensburg, Germany

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Published:05 May 2010https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2010.0644

Abstract

Social organisms are constantly exposed to infectious agents via physical contact with conspecifics. While previous work has shown that disease susceptibility at the individual and group level is influenced by genetic diversity within and between group members, it remains poorly understood how group-level resistance to pathogens relates directly to individual physiology, defence behaviour and social interactions. We investigated the effects of high versus low genetic diversity on both the individual and collective disease defences in the ant Cardiocondyla obscurior. We compared the antiseptic behaviours (grooming and hygienic behaviour) of workers from genetically homogeneous and diverse colonies after exposure of their brood to the entomopathogenic fungus Metarhizium anisopliae. While workers from diverse colonies performed intensive allogrooming and quickly removed larvae covered with live fungal spores from the nest, workers from homogeneous colonies only removed sick larvae late after infection. This difference was not caused by a reduced repertoire of antiseptic behaviours or a generally decreased brood care activity in ants from homogeneous colonies. Our data instead suggest that reduced genetic diversity compromises the ability of Cardiocondyla colonies to quickly detect or react to the presence of pathogenic fungal spores before an infection is established, thereby affecting the dynamics of social immunity in the colony.

Footnotes

†Present address: Centre for Social Evolution, University of Copenhagen, Universitetsparken 15, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark.

‡These two authors contributed equally to the work.

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