---
_id: '413'
abstract:
- lang: eng
text: Being cared for when sick is a benefit of sociality that can reduce disease
and improve survival of group members. However, individuals providing care risk
contracting infectious diseases themselves. If they contract a low pathogen dose,
they may develop low-level infections that do not cause disease but still affect
host immunity by either decreasing or increasing the host’s vulnerability to subsequent
infections. Caring for contagious individuals can thus significantly alter the
future disease susceptibility of caregivers. Using ants and their fungal pathogens
as a model system, we tested if the altered disease susceptibility of experienced
caregivers, in turn, affects their expression of sanitary care behavior. We found
that low-level infections contracted during sanitary care had protective or neutral
effects on secondary exposure to the same (homologous) pathogen but consistently
caused high mortality on superinfection with a different (heterologous) pathogen.
In response to this risk, the ants selectively adjusted the expression of their
sanitary care. Specifically, the ants performed less grooming and more antimicrobial
disinfection when caring for nestmates contaminated with heterologous pathogens
compared with homologous ones. By modulating the components of sanitary care in
this way the ants acquired less infectious particles of the heterologous pathogens,
resulting in reduced superinfection. The performance of risk-adjusted sanitary
care reveals the remarkable capacity of ants to react to changes in their disease
susceptibility, according to their own infection history and to flexibly adjust
collective care to individual risk.
article_processing_charge: No
author:
- first_name: Matthias
full_name: Konrad, Matthias
id: 46528076-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87
last_name: Konrad
- first_name: Christopher
full_name: Pull, Christopher
id: 3C7F4840-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87
last_name: Pull
orcid: 0000-0003-1122-3982
- first_name: Sina
full_name: Metzler, Sina
id: 48204546-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87
last_name: Metzler
orcid: 0000-0002-9547-2494
- first_name: Katharina
full_name: Seif, Katharina
id: 90F7894A-02CF-11E9-976E-E38CFE5CBC1D
last_name: Seif
- first_name: Elisabeth
full_name: Naderlinger, Elisabeth
id: 31757262-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87
last_name: Naderlinger
- 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
citation:
ama: Konrad M, Pull C, Metzler S, et al. Ants avoid superinfections by performing
risk-adjusted sanitary care. PNAS. 2018;115(11):2782-2787. doi:10.1073/pnas.1713501115
apa: Konrad, M., Pull, C., Metzler, S., Seif, K., Naderlinger, E., Grasse, A. V.,
& Cremer, S. (2018). Ants avoid superinfections by performing risk-adjusted
sanitary care. PNAS. National Academy of Sciences. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1713501115
chicago: Konrad, Matthias, Christopher Pull, Sina Metzler, Katharina Seif, Elisabeth
Naderlinger, Anna V Grasse, and Sylvia Cremer. “Ants Avoid Superinfections by
Performing Risk-Adjusted Sanitary Care.” PNAS. National Academy of Sciences,
2018. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1713501115.
ieee: M. Konrad et al., “Ants avoid superinfections by performing risk-adjusted
sanitary care,” PNAS, vol. 115, no. 11. National Academy of Sciences, pp.
2782–2787, 2018.
ista: Konrad M, Pull C, Metzler S, Seif K, Naderlinger E, Grasse AV, Cremer S. 2018.
Ants avoid superinfections by performing risk-adjusted sanitary care. PNAS. 115(11),
2782–2787.
mla: Konrad, Matthias, et al. “Ants Avoid Superinfections by Performing Risk-Adjusted
Sanitary Care.” PNAS, vol. 115, no. 11, National Academy of Sciences, 2018,
pp. 2782–87, doi:10.1073/pnas.1713501115.
short: M. Konrad, C. Pull, S. Metzler, K. Seif, E. Naderlinger, A.V. Grasse, S.
Cremer, PNAS 115 (2018) 2782–2787.
date_created: 2018-12-11T11:46:20Z
date_published: 2018-03-13T00:00:00Z
date_updated: 2023-09-08T13:22:21Z
day: '13'
department:
- _id: SyCr
doi: 10.1073/pnas.1713501115
ec_funded: 1
external_id:
isi:
- '000427245400069'
pmid:
- '29463746'
intvolume: ' 115'
isi: 1
issue: '11'
language:
- iso: eng
main_file_link:
- open_access: '1'
url: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29463746
month: '03'
oa: 1
oa_version: Published Version
page: 2782 - 2787
pmid: 1
project:
- _id: 25DC711C-B435-11E9-9278-68D0E5697425
call_identifier: FP7
grant_number: '243071'
name: 'Social Vaccination in Ant Colonies: from Individual Mechanisms to Society
Effects'
publication: PNAS
publication_status: published
publisher: National Academy of Sciences
publist_id: '7416'
quality_controlled: '1'
related_material:
link:
- description: News on IST Homepage
relation: press_release
url: https://ist.ac.at/en/news/helping-in-spite-of-risk-ants-perform-risk-averse-sanitary-care-of-infectious-nest-mates/
scopus_import: '1'
status: public
title: Ants avoid superinfections by performing risk-adjusted sanitary care
type: journal_article
user_id: c635000d-4b10-11ee-a964-aac5a93f6ac1
volume: 115
year: '2018'
...