---
_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
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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'
...