--- _id: '914' abstract: - lang: eng text: Infections with potentially lethal pathogens may negatively affect an individual’s lifespan and decrease its reproductive value. The terminal investment hypothesis predicts that individuals faced with a reduced survival should invest more into reproduction instead of maintenance and growth. Several studies suggest that individuals are indeed able to estimate their body condition and to increase their reproductive effort with approaching death, while other studies gave ambiguous results. We investigate whether queens of a perennial social insect (ant) are able to boost their reproduction following infection with an obligate killing pathogen. Social insect queens are special with regard to reproduction and aging, as they outlive conspecific non-reproductive workers. Moreover, in the ant Cardiocondyla obscurior, fecundity increases with queen age. However, it remained unclear whether this reflects negative reproductive senescence or terminal investment in response to approaching death. Here, we test whether queens of C. obscurior react to infection with the entomopathogenic fungus Metarhizium brunneum by an increased egg-laying rate. We show that a fungal infection triggers a reinforced investment in reproduction in queens. This adjustment of the reproductive rate by ant queens is consistent with predictions of the terminal investment hypothesis and is reported for the first time in a social insect. acknowledgement: We thank two anonymous reviewers for helpful suggestions on the manuscript. article_number: '170547' article_processing_charge: No author: - first_name: Julia full_name: Giehr, Julia last_name: Giehr - first_name: Anna V full_name: Grasse, Anna V id: 406F989C-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87 last_name: Grasse - first_name: Sylvia full_name: Cremer, Sylvia id: 2F64EC8C-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87 last_name: Cremer orcid: 0000-0002-2193-3868 - first_name: Jürgen full_name: Heinze, Jürgen last_name: Heinze - first_name: Alexandra full_name: Schrempf, Alexandra last_name: Schrempf citation: ama: Giehr J, Grasse AV, Cremer S, Heinze J, Schrempf A. Ant queens increase their reproductive efforts after pathogen infection. Royal Society Open Science. 2017;4(7). doi:10.1098/rsos.170547 apa: Giehr, J., Grasse, A. V., Cremer, S., Heinze, J., & Schrempf, A. (2017). Ant queens increase their reproductive efforts after pathogen infection. Royal Society Open Science. Royal Society, The. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.170547 chicago: Giehr, Julia, Anna V Grasse, Sylvia Cremer, Jürgen Heinze, and Alexandra Schrempf. “Ant Queens Increase Their Reproductive Efforts after Pathogen Infection.” Royal Society Open Science. Royal Society, The, 2017. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.170547. ieee: J. Giehr, A. V. Grasse, S. Cremer, J. Heinze, and A. Schrempf, “Ant queens increase their reproductive efforts after pathogen infection,” Royal Society Open Science, vol. 4, no. 7. Royal Society, The, 2017. ista: Giehr J, Grasse AV, Cremer S, Heinze J, Schrempf A. 2017. Ant queens increase their reproductive efforts after pathogen infection. Royal Society Open Science. 4(7), 170547. mla: Giehr, Julia, et al. “Ant Queens Increase Their Reproductive Efforts after Pathogen Infection.” Royal Society Open Science, vol. 4, no. 7, 170547, Royal Society, The, 2017, doi:10.1098/rsos.170547. short: J. Giehr, A.V. Grasse, S. Cremer, J. Heinze, A. Schrempf, Royal Society Open Science 4 (2017). date_created: 2018-12-11T11:49:10Z date_published: 2017-07-05T00:00:00Z date_updated: 2023-09-26T15:45:47Z day: '05' ddc: - '576' - '592' department: - _id: SyCr doi: 10.1098/rsos.170547 external_id: isi: - '000406670000025' file: - access_level: open_access checksum: 351ae5e7a37e6e7d9295cd41146c4190 content_type: application/pdf creator: system date_created: 2018-12-12T10:08:24Z date_updated: 2020-07-14T12:48:15Z file_id: '4684' file_name: IST-2017-849-v1+1_2017_Grasse_Cremer_AntQueens.pdf file_size: 530412 relation: main_file file_date_updated: 2020-07-14T12:48:15Z has_accepted_license: '1' intvolume: ' 4' isi: 1 issue: '7' language: - iso: eng license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ month: '07' oa: 1 oa_version: Published Version publication: Royal Society Open Science publication_identifier: issn: - '20545703' publication_status: published publisher: Royal Society, The publist_id: '6527' pubrep_id: '849' quality_controlled: '1' related_material: record: - id: '9853' relation: research_data status: public scopus_import: '1' status: public title: Ant queens increase their reproductive efforts after pathogen infection tmp: image: /images/cc_by.png legal_code_url: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode name: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0) short: CC BY (4.0) type: journal_article user_id: c635000d-4b10-11ee-a964-aac5a93f6ac1 volume: 4 year: '2017' ...