TY - JOUR AB - In animals, parasitic infections impose significant fitness costs.1,2,3,4,5,6 Infected animals can alter their feeding behavior to resist infection,7,8,9,10,11,12 but parasites can manipulate animal foraging behavior to their own benefits.13,14,15,16 How nutrition influences host-parasite interactions is not well understood, as studies have mainly focused on the host and less on the parasite.9,12,17,18,19,20,21,22,23 We used the nutritional geometry framework24 to investigate the role of amino acids (AA) and carbohydrates (C) in a host-parasite system: the Argentine ant, Linepithema humile, and the entomopathogenic fungus, Metarhizium brunneum. First, using 18 diets varying in AA:C composition, we established that the fungus performed best on the high-amino-acid diet 1:4. Second, we found that the fungus reached this optimal diet when given various diet pairings, revealing its ability to cope with nutritional challenges. Third, we showed that the optimal fungal diet reduced the lifespan of healthy ants when compared with a high-carbohydrate diet but had no effect on infected ants. Fourth, we revealed that infected ant colonies, given a choice between the optimal fungal diet and a high-carbohydrate diet, chose the optimal fungal diet, whereas healthy colonies avoided it. Lastly, by disentangling fungal infection from host immune response, we demonstrated that infected ants foraged on the optimal fungal diet in response to immune activation and not as a result of parasite manipulation. Therefore, we revealed that infected ant colonies chose a diet that is costly for survival in the long term but beneficial in the short term—a form of collective self-medication. AU - Csata, Eniko AU - Perez-Escudero, Alfonso AU - Laury, Emmanuel AU - Leitner, Hanna AU - Latil, Gerard AU - Heinze, Juerge AU - Simpson, Stephen AU - Cremer, Sylvia AU - Dussutour, Audrey ID - 14479 IS - 4 JF - Current Biology SN - 0960-9822 TI - Fungal infection alters collective nutritional intake of ant colonies VL - 34 ER - TY - JOUR AB - Entire chromosomes are typically only transmitted vertically from one generation to the next. The horizontal transfer of such chromosomes has long been considered improbable, yet gained recent support in several pathogenic fungi where it may affect the fitness or host specificity. To date, it is unknown how these transfers occur, how common they are and whether they can occur between different species. In this study, we show multiple independent instances of horizontal transfers of the same accessory chromosome between two distinct strains of the asexual entomopathogenic fungusMetarhizium robertsiiduring experimental co-infection of its insect host, the Argentine ant. Notably, only the one chromosome – but no other – was transferred from the donor to the recipient strain. The recipient strain, now harboring the accessory chromosome, exhibited a competitive advantage under certain host conditions. By phylogenetic analysis we further demonstrate that the same accessory chromosome was horizontally transferred in a natural environment betweenM. robertsiiand another congeneric insect pathogen,M. guizhouense. Hence horizontal chromosome transfer is not limited to the observed frequent events within species during experimental infections but also occurs naturally across species. The transferred accessory chromosome contains genes that might be involved in its preferential horizontal transfer, encoding putative histones and histone-modifying enzymes, but also putative virulence factors that may support its establishment. Our study reveals that both intra- and interspecies horizontal transfer of entire chromosomes is more frequent than previously assumed, likely representing a not uncommon mechanism for gene exchange.Significance StatementThe enormous success of bacterial pathogens has been attributed to their ability to exchange genetic material between one another. Similarly, in eukaryotes, horizontal transfer of genetic material allowed the spread of virulence factors across species. The horizontal transfer of whole chromosomes could be an important pathway for such exchange of genetic material, but little is known about the origin of transferable chromosomes and how frequently they are exchanged. Here, we show that the transfer of accessory chromosomes - chromosomes that are non-essential but may provide fitness benefits - is common during fungal co-infections and is even possible between distant pathogenic species, highlighting the importance of horizontal gene transfer via chromosome transfer also for the evolution and function of eukaryotic pathogens. AU - Habig, Michael AU - Grasse, Anna V AU - Müller, Judith AU - Stukenbrock, Eva H. AU - Leitner, Hanna AU - Cremer, Sylvia ID - 14478 IS - 11 JF - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America SN - 0027-8424 TI - Frequent horizontal chromosome transfer between asexual fungal insect pathogens VL - 121 ER - TY - JOUR AB - Hosts can carry many viruses in their bodies, but not all of them cause disease. We studied ants as a social host to determine both their overall viral repertoire and the subset of actively infecting viruses across natural populations of three subfamilies: the Argentine ant (Linepithema humile, Dolichoderinae), the invasive garden ant (Lasius neglectus, Formicinae) and the red ant (Myrmica rubra, Myrmicinae). We used a dual sequencing strategy to reconstruct complete virus genomes by RNA-seq and to simultaneously determine the small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) by small RNA sequencing (sRNA-seq), which constitute the host antiviral RNAi immune response. This approach led to the discovery of 41 novel viruses in ants and revealed a host ant-specific RNAi response (21 vs. 22 nt siRNAs) in the different ant species. The efficiency of the RNAi response (sRNA/RNA read count ratio) depended on the virus and the respective ant species, but not its population. Overall, we found the highest virus abundance and diversity per population in Li. humile, followed by La. neglectus and M. rubra. Argentine ants also shared a high proportion of viruses between populations, whilst overlap was nearly absent in M. rubra. Only one of the 59 viruses was found to infect two of the ant species as hosts, revealing high host-specificity in active infections. In contrast, six viruses actively infected one ant species, but were found as contaminants only in the others. Disentangling spillover of disease-causing infection from non-infecting contamination across species is providing relevant information for disease ecology and ecosystem management. AU - Viljakainen, Lumi AU - Fürst, Matthias AU - Grasse, Anna V AU - Jurvansuu, Jaana AU - Oh, Jinook AU - Tolonen, Lassi AU - Eder, Thomas AU - Rattei, Thomas AU - Cremer, Sylvia ID - 12469 JF - Frontiers in Microbiology TI - Antiviral immune response reveals host-specific virus infections in natural ant populations VL - 14 ER - TY - JOUR AB - Cooperative disease defense emerges as group-level collective behavior, yet how group members make the underlying individual decisions is poorly understood. Using garden ants and fungal pathogens as an experimental model, we derive the rules governing individual ant grooming choices and show how they produce colony-level hygiene. Time-resolved behavioral analysis, pathogen quantification, and probabilistic modeling reveal that ants increase grooming and preferentially target highly-infectious individuals when perceiving high pathogen load, but transiently suppress grooming after having been groomed by nestmates. Ants thus react to both, the infectivity of others and the social feedback they receive on their own contagiousness. While inferred solely from momentary ant decisions, these behavioral rules quantitatively predict hour-long experimental dynamics, and synergistically combine into efficient colony-wide pathogen removal. Our analyses show that noisy individual decisions based on only local, incomplete, yet dynamically-updated information on pathogen threat and social feedback can lead to potent collective disease defense. AU - Casillas Perez, Barbara E AU - Bod'Ová, Katarína AU - Grasse, Anna V AU - Tkačik, Gašper AU - Cremer, Sylvia ID - 13127 JF - Nature Communications TI - Dynamic pathogen detection and social feedback shape collective hygiene in ants VL - 14 ER - TY - DATA AB - basic data for use in code for experimental data analysis for manuscript under revision: Dynamic pathogen detection and social feedback shape collective hygiene in ants Casillas-Pérez B, Boďová K, Grasse AV, Tkačik G, Cremer S AU - Cremer, Sylvia ID - 12945 KW - collective behavior KW - host-pathogen interactions KW - social immunity KW - epidemiology KW - social insects KW - probabilistic modeling TI - Data from: "Dynamic pathogen detection and social feedback shape collective hygiene in ants" ER - TY - JOUR AB - Treating sick group members is a hallmark of collective disease defence in vertebrates and invertebrates alike. Despite substantial effects on pathogen fitness and epidemiology, it is still largely unknown how pathogens react to the selection pressure imposed by care intervention. Using social insects and pathogenic fungi, we here performed a serial passage experiment in the presence or absence of colony members, which provide social immunity by grooming off infectious spores from exposed individuals. We found specific effects on pathogen diversity, virulence and transmission. Under selection of social immunity, pathogens invested into higher spore production, but spores were less virulent. Notably, they also elicited a lower grooming response in colony members, compared with spores from the individual host selection lines. Chemical spore analysis suggested that the spores from social selection lines escaped the caregivers’ detection by containing lower levels of ergosterol, a key fungal membrane component. Experimental application of chemically pure ergosterol indeed induced sanitary grooming, supporting its role as a microbe-associated cue triggering host social immunity against fungal pathogens. By reducing this detection cue, pathogens were able to evade the otherwise very effective collective disease defences of their social hosts. AU - Stock, Miriam AU - Milutinovic, Barbara AU - Hönigsberger, Michaela AU - Grasse, Anna V AU - Wiesenhofer, Florian AU - Kampleitner, Niklas AU - Narasimhan, Madhumitha AU - Schmitt, Thomas AU - Cremer, Sylvia ID - 12543 JF - Nature Ecology and Evolution TI - Pathogen evasion of social immunity VL - 7 ER - TY - JOUR AB - Two notes separated by a doubling in frequency sound similar to humans. This “octave equivalence” is critical to perception and production of music and speech and occurs early in human development. Because it also occurs cross-culturally, a biological basis of octave equivalence has been hypothesized. Members of our team previousy suggested four human traits are at the root of this phenomenon: (1) vocal learning, (2) clear octave information in vocal harmonics, (3) differing vocal ranges, and (4) vocalizing together. Using cross-species studies, we can test how relevant these respective traits are, while controlling for enculturation effects and addressing questions of phylogeny. Common marmosets possess forms of three of the four traits, lacking differing vocal ranges. We tested 11 common marmosets by adapting an established head-turning paradigm, creating a parallel test to an important infant study. Unlike human infants, marmosets responded similarly to tones shifted by an octave or other intervals. Because previous studies with the same head-turning paradigm produced differential results to discernable acoustic stimuli in common marmosets, our results suggest that marmosets do not perceive octave equivalence. Our work suggests differing vocal ranges between adults and children and men and women and the way they are used in singing together may be critical to the development of octave equivalence. AU - Wagner, Bernhard AU - Šlipogor, Vedrana AU - Oh, Jinook AU - Varga, Marion AU - Hoeschele, Marisa ID - 12961 IS - 5 JF - Developmental Science SN - 1363-755X TI - A comparison between common marmosets (Callithrix jacchus) and human infants sheds light on traits proposed to be at the root of human octave equivalence VL - 26 ER - TY - JOUR AB - Animals exhibit a variety of behavioural defences against socially transmitted parasites. These defences evolved to increase host fitness by avoiding, resisting or tolerating infection. Because they can occur in both infected individuals and their uninfected social partners, these defences often have important consequences for the social group. Here, we discuss the evolution and ecology of anti-parasite behavioural defences across a taxonomically wide social spectrum, considering colonial groups, stable groups, transitional groups and solitary animals. We discuss avoidance, resistance and tolerance behaviours across these social group structures, identifying how social complexity, group composition and interdependent social relationships may contribute to the expression and evolution of behavioural strategies. Finally, we outline avenues for further investigation such as approaches to quantify group-level responses, and the connection of the physiological and behavioural response to parasites in different social contexts. AU - Stockmaier, Sebastian AU - Ulrich, Yuko AU - Albery, Gregory F. AU - Cremer, Sylvia AU - Lopes, Patricia C. ID - 12765 IS - 4 JF - Functional Ecology SN - 0269-8463 TI - Behavioural defences against parasites across host social structures VL - 37 ER - TY - JOUR AB - Background: Fighting disease while fighting rivals exposes males to constraints and tradeoffs during male-male competition. We here tested how both the stage and intensity of infection with the fungal pathogen Metarhizium robertsii interfered with fighting success in Cardiocondyla obscurior ant males. Males of this species have evolved long lifespans during which they can gain many matings with the young queens of the colony, if successful in male-male competition. Since male fights occur inside the colony, the outcome of male-male competition can further be biased by interference of the colony’s worker force. Results: We found that severe, but not yet mild, infection strongly impaired male fighting success. In late-stage infection, this could be attributed to worker aggression directed towards the infected rather than the healthy male and an already very high male morbidity even in the absence of fighting. Shortly after pathogen exposure, however, male mortality was particularly increased during combat. Since these males mounted a strong immune response, their reduced fighting success suggests a trade-off between immune investment and competitive ability already early in the infection. Even if the males themselves showed no difference in the number of attacks they raised against their healthy rivals across infection stages and levels, severely infected males were thus losing in male-male competition from an early stage of infection on. Conclusions: Males of the ant C. obscurior have evolved high immune investment, triggering an effective immune response very fast after fungal exposure. This allows them to cope with mild pathogen exposures without cost to their success in male-male competition, and hence to gain multiple mating opportunities with the emerging virgin queens of the colony. Under severe infection, however, they are weak fighters and rarely survive a combat already at early infection when raising an immune response, as well as at progressed infection, when they are morbid and preferentially targeted by worker aggression. Workers thereby remove males that pose a future disease threat by biasing male-male competition. Our study thus revealed a novel social immunity mechanism how social insect workers protect the colony against disease risk. AU - Metzler, Sina AU - Kirchner, Jessica AU - Grasse, Anna V AU - Cremer, Sylvia ID - 12696 JF - BMC Ecology and Evolution SN - 2730-7182 TI - Trade-offs between immunity and competitive ability in fighting ant males VL - 23 ER - TY - DATA AB - See Readme File for further information. AU - Cremer, Sylvia ID - 12693 TI - Source data for Metzler et al, 2023: Trade-offs between immunity and competitive ability in fighting ant males ER - TY - THES AB - Social insects fight disease using their individual immune systems and the cooperative sanitary behaviors of colony members. These social defenses are well explored against externally-infecting pathogens, but little is known about defense strategies against internally-infecting pathogens, such as viruses. Viruses are ubiquitous and in the last decades it has become evident that also many ant species harbor viruses. We present one of the first studies addressing transmission dynamics and collective disease defenses against viruses in ants on a mechanistic level. I successfully established an experimental ant host – viral pathogen system as a model for the defense strategies used by social insects against internal pathogen infections, as outlined in the third chapter. In particular, we studied how garden ants (Lasius neglectus) defend themselves and their colonies against the generalist insect virus CrPV (cricket paralysis virus). We chose microinjections of virus directly into the ants’ hemolymph because it allowed us to use a defined exposure dose. Here we show that this is a good model system, as the virus is replicating and thus infecting the host. The ants mount a clear individual immune response against the viral infection, which is characterized by a specific siRNA pattern, namely siRNAs mapping against the viral genome with a peak of 21 and 22 bp long fragments. The onset of this immune response is consistent with the timeline of viral replication that starts already within two days post injection. The disease manifests in decreased survival over a course of two to three weeks. Regarding group living, we find that infected ants show a strong individual immune response, but that their course of disease is little affected by nestmate presence, as described in chapter four. Hence, we do not find social immunity in the context of viral infections in ants. Nestmates, however, can contract the virus. Using Drosophila S2R+ cells in culture, we showed that 94 % of the nestmates contract active virus within four days of social contact to an infected individual. Virus is transmitted in low doses, thus not causing disease transmission within the colony. While virus can be transmitted during short direct contacts, we also assume transmission from deceased ants and show that the nestmates’ immune system gets activated after contracting a low viral dose. We find considerable potential for indirect transmission via the nest space. Virus is shed to the nest, where it stays viable for one week and is also picked up by other ants. Apart from that, we want to underline the potential of ant poison as antiviral agent. We determined that ant poison successfully inactivates CrPV in vitro. However, we found no evidence for effective poison use to sanitize the nest space. On the other hand, local application of ant poison by oral poison uptake, which is part of the ants prophylactic behavioral repertoire, probably contributes to keeping the gut of each individual sanitized. We hypothesize that oral poison uptake might be the reason why we did not find viable virus in the trophallactic fluid. The fifth chapter encompasses preliminary data on potential social immunization. However, our experiments do not confirm an actual survival benefit for the nestmates upon pathogen challenge under the given experimental settings. Nevertheless, we do not want to rule out the possibility for nestmate immunization, but rather emphasize that considering different experimental timelines and viral doses would provide a multitude of options for follow-up experiments. In conclusion, we find that prophylactic individual behaviors, such as oral poison uptake, might play a role in preventing viral disease transmission. Compared to colony defense against external pathogens, internal pathogen infections require a stronger component of individual physiological immunity than behavioral social immunity, yet could still lead to collective protection. AU - Franschitz, Anna ID - 13984 SN - 2663 - 337X TI - Individual and social immunity against viral infections in ants ER - TY - JOUR AB - Social distancing is an effective way to prevent the spread of disease in societies, whereas infection elimination is a key element of organismal immunity. Here, we discuss how the study of social insects such as ants — which form a superorganism of unconditionally cooperative individuals and thus represent a level of organization that is intermediate between a classical society of individuals and an organism of cells — can help to determine common principles of disease defence across levels of organization. AU - Cremer, Sylvia AU - Sixt, Michael K ID - 12133 IS - 12 JF - Nature Reviews Immunology KW - Energy Engineering and Power Technology KW - Fuel Technology SN - 1474-1733 TI - Principles of disease defence in organisms, superorganisms and societies VL - 22 ER - TY - JOUR AB - Infections early in life can have enduring effects on an organism's development and immunity. In this study, we show that this equally applies to developing ‘superorganisms’––incipient social insect colonies. When we exposed newly mated Lasius niger ant queens to a low pathogen dose, their colonies grew more slowly than controls before winter, but reached similar sizes afterwards. Independent of exposure, queen hibernation survival improved when the ratio of pupae to workers was small. Queens that reared fewer pupae before worker emergence exhibited lower pathogen levels, indicating that high brood rearing efforts interfere with the ability of the queen's immune system to suppress pathogen proliferation. Early-life queen pathogen exposure also improved the immunocompetence of her worker offspring, as demonstrated by challenging the workers to the same pathogen a year later. Transgenerational transfer of the queen's pathogen experience to her workforce can hence durably reduce the disease susceptibility of the whole superorganism. AU - Casillas Perez, Barbara E AU - Pull, Christopher AU - Naiser, Filip AU - Naderlinger, Elisabeth AU - Matas, Jiri AU - Cremer, Sylvia ID - 10284 IS - 1 JF - Ecology Letters SN - 1461-023X TI - Early queen infection shapes developmental dynamics and induces long-term disease protection in incipient ant colonies VL - 25 ER - TY - THES AB - Social insects are a common model to study disease dynamics in social animals. Even though pathogens should thrive in social insect colonies as the hosts engage in frequent social interactions, are closely related and live in a pathogen-rich environment, disease outbreaks are rare. This is because social insects have evolved mechanisms to keep pathogens at bay – and fight disease as a collective. Social insect colonies are often viewed as “superorganisms” with division of labor between reproductive “germ-like” queens and males and “somatic” workers, which together form an interdependent reproductive unit that parallels a multicellular body. Superorganisms possess a “social immune system” that comprises of collective disease defenses performed by the workers - summarized as “social immunity”. In social groups immunization (reduced susceptibility to a parasite upon secondary exposure to the same parasite) can e.g. be triggered by social interactions (“social immunization”). Social immunization can be caused by (i) asymptomatic low-level infections that are acquired during caregiving to a contagious individual that can give an immune boost, which can induce protection upon later encounter with the same pathogen (active immunization) or (ii) by transfer of immune effectors between individuals (passive immunization). In the second chapter, I built up on a study that I co-authored that found that low-level infections can not only be protective, but also be costly and make the host more susceptible to detrimental superinfections after contact to a very dissimilar pathogen. I here now tested different degrees of phylogenetically-distant fungal strains of M. brunneum and M. robertsii in L. neglectus and can describe the occurrence of cross-protection of social immunization if the first and second pathogen are from the same level. Interestingly, low-level infections only provided protection when the first strain was less virulent than the second strain and elicited higher immune gene expression. In the third and fourth chapters, I expanded on the role of social immunity in sexual selection, a so far unstudied field. I used the fungus Metarhizium robertsii and the ant Cardiocondyla obscurior as a model, as in this species mating occurs in the presence of workers and can be studied under laboratory conditions. Before males mate with virgin queens in the nest they engage in fierce combat over the access to their mating partners. First, I focused on male-male competition in the third chapter and found that fighting with a contagious male is costly as it can lead to contamination of the rival, but that workers can decrease the risk of disease contraction by performing sanitary care. In the fourth chapter, I studied the effect of fungal infection on survival and mating success of sexuals (freshly emerged queens and males) and found that worker-performed sanitary care can buffer the negative effect that a pathogenic contagion would have on sexuals by spore removal from the exposed individuals. When social immunity was prevented and queens could contract spores from their mating partner, very low dosages led to negative consequences: their lifespan was reduced and they produced fewer offspring with poor immunocompetence compared to healthy queens. Interestingly, cohabitation with a late-stage infected male where no spore transfer was possible had a positive effect on offspring immunity – male offspring of mothers that apparently perceived an infected partner in their vicinity reacted more sensitively to fungal challenge than male offspring without paternal pathogen history. AU - Metzler, Sina ID - 10727 SN - 2663-337X TI - Pathogen-mediated sexual selection and immunization in ant colonies ER - TY - JOUR AB - Behavioral predispositions are innate tendencies of animals to behave in a given way without the input of learning. They increase survival chances and, due to environmental and ecological challenges, may vary substantially even between closely related taxa. These differences are likely to be especially pronounced in long-lived species like crocodilians. This order is particularly relevant for comparative cognition due to its phylogenetic proximity to birds. Here we compared early life behavioral predispositions in two Alligatoridae species. We exposed American alligator and spectacled caiman hatchlings to three different novel situations: a novel object, a novel environment that was open and a novel environment with a shelter. This was then repeated a week later. During exposure to the novel environments, alligators moved around more and explored a larger range of the arena than the caimans. When exposed to the novel object, the alligators reduced the mean distance to the novel object in the second phase, while the caimans further increased it, indicating diametrically opposite ontogenetic development in behavioral predispositions. Although all crocodilian hatchlings face comparable challenges, e.g., high predation pressure, the effectiveness of parental protection might explain the observed pattern. American alligators are apex predators capable of protecting their offspring against most dangers, whereas adult spectacled caimans are frequently predated themselves. Their distancing behavior might be related to increased predator avoidance and also explain the success of invasive spectacled caimans in the natural habitats of other crocodilians. AU - Reber, Stephan A. AU - Oh, Jinook AU - Janisch, Judith AU - Stevenson, Colin AU - Foggett, Shaun AU - Wilkinson, Anna ID - 9101 IS - 4 JF - Animal Cognition SN - 14359448 TI - Early life differences in behavioral predispositions in two Alligatoridae species VL - 24 ER - TY - GEN AB - Infections early in life can have enduring effects on an organism’s development and immunity. In this study, we show that this equally applies to developing “superorganisms” – incipient social insect colonies. When we exposed newly mated Lasius niger ant queens to a low pathogen dose, their colonies grew more slowly than controls before winter, but reached similar sizes afterwards. Independent of exposure, queen hibernation survival improved when the ratio of pupae to workers was small. Queens that reared fewer pupae before worker emergence exhibited lower pathogen levels, indicating that high brood rearing efforts interfere with the ability of the queen’s immune system to suppress pathogen proliferation. Early-life queen pathogen-exposure also improved the immunocompetence of her worker offspring, as demonstrated by challenging the workers to the same pathogen a year later. Transgenerational transfer of the queen’s pathogen experience to her workforce can hence durably reduce the disease susceptibility of the whole superorganism. AU - Casillas Perez, Barbara E AU - Pull, Christopher AU - Naiser, Filip AU - Naderlinger, Elisabeth AU - Matas, Jiri AU - Cremer, Sylvia ID - 13061 TI - Early queen infection shapes developmental dynamics and induces long-term disease protection in incipient ant colonies ER - TY - JOUR AB - Genetic adaptation and phenotypic plasticity facilitate the migration into new habitats and enable organisms to cope with a rapidly changing environment. In contrast to genetic adaptation that spans multiple generations as an evolutionary process, phenotypic plasticity allows acclimation within the life-time of an organism. Genetic adaptation and phenotypic plasticity are usually studied in isolation, however, only by including their interactive impact, we can understand acclimation and adaptation in nature. We aimed to explore the contribution of adaptation and plasticity in coping with an abiotic (salinity) and a biotic (Vibrio bacteria) stressor using six different populations of the broad-nosed pipefish Syngnathus typhle that originated from either high [14–17 Practical Salinity Unit (PSU)] or low (7–11 PSU) saline environments along the German coastline of the Baltic Sea. We exposed wild caught animals, to either high (15 PSU) or low (7 PSU) salinity, representing native and novel salinity conditions and allowed animals to mate. After male pregnancy, offspring was split and each half was exposed to one of the two salinities and infected with Vibrio alginolyticus bacteria that were evolved at either of the two salinities in a fully reciprocal design. We investigated life-history traits of fathers and expression of 47 target genes in mothers and offspring. Pregnant males originating from high salinity exposed to low salinity were highly susceptible to opportunistic fungi infections resulting in decreased offspring size and number. In contrast, no signs of fungal infection were identified in fathers originating from low saline conditions suggesting that genetic adaptation has the potential to overcome the challenges encountered at low salinity. Offspring from parents with low saline origin survived better at low salinity suggesting genetic adaptation to low salinity. In addition, gene expression analyses of juveniles indicated patterns of local adaptation, trans-generational plasticity and developmental plasticity. In conclusion, our study suggests that pipefish are locally adapted to the low salinity in their environment, however, they are retaining phenotypic plasticity, which allows them to also cope with ancestral salinity levels and prevailing pathogens. AU - Goehlich, Henry AU - Sartoris, Linda AU - Wagner, Kim-Sara AU - Wendling, Carolin C. AU - Roth, Olivia ID - 10568 JF - Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution KW - ecology KW - evolution KW - behavior and systematics KW - trans-generational plasticity KW - genetic adaptation KW - local adaptation KW - phenotypic plasticity KW - Baltic Sea KW - climate change KW - salinity KW - syngnathids SN - 2296-701X TI - Pipefish locally adapted to low salinity in the Baltic Sea retain phenotypic plasticity to cope with ancestral salinity levels VL - 9 ER - TY - JOUR AB - For animals to survive until reproduction, it is crucial that juveniles successfully detect potential predators and respond with appropriate behavior. The recognition of cues originating from predators can be innate or learned. Cues of various modalities might be used alone or in multi-modal combinations to detect and distinguish predators but studies investigating multi-modal integration in predator avoidance are scarce. Here, we used wild, naive tadpoles of the Neotropical poison frog Allobates femoralis ( Boulenger, 1884) to test their reaction to cues with two modalities from two different sympatrically occurring potential predators: heterospecific predatory Dendrobates tinctorius tadpoles and dragonfly larvae. We presented A. femoralis tadpoles with olfactory or visual cues, or a combination of the two, and compared their reaction to a water control in a between-individual design. In our trials, A. femoralis tadpoles reacted to multi-modal stimuli (a combination of visual and chemical information) originating from dragonfly larvae with avoidance but showed no reaction to uni-modal cues or cues from heterospecific tadpoles. In addition, visual cues from conspecifics increased swimming activity while cues from predators had no effect on tadpole activity. Our results show that A. femoralis tadpoles can innately recognize some predators and probably need both visual and chemical information to effectively avoid them. This is the first study looking at anti-predator behavior in poison frog tadpoles. We discuss how parental care might influence the expression of predator avoidance responses in tadpoles. AU - Szabo, B AU - Mangione, R AU - Rath, M AU - Pašukonis, A AU - Reber, SA AU - Oh, Jinook AU - Ringler, M AU - Ringler, E ID - 10569 IS - 24 JF - Journal of Experimental Biology SN - 0022-0949 TI - Naïve poison frog tadpoles use bi-modal cues to avoid insect predators but not heterospecific predatory tadpoles VL - 224 ER - TY - CHAP AU - Schmid-Hempel, Paul AU - Cremer, Sylvia M ED - Starr, C ID - 9096 SN - 9783319903064 T2 - Encyclopedia of Social Insects TI - Parasites and Pathogens ER - TY - JOUR AB - In plants, clathrin mediated endocytosis (CME) represents the major route for cargo internalisation from the cell surface. It has been assumed to operate in an evolutionary conserved manner as in yeast and animals. Here we report characterisation of ultrastructure, dynamics and mechanisms of plant CME as allowed by our advancement in electron microscopy and quantitative live imaging techniques. Arabidopsis CME appears to follow the constant curvature model and the bona fide CME population generates vesicles of a predominantly hexagonal-basket type; larger and with faster kinetics than in other models. Contrary to the existing paradigm, actin is dispensable for CME events at the plasma membrane but plays a unique role in collecting endocytic vesicles, sorting of internalised cargos and directional endosome movement that itself actively promote CME events. Internalized vesicles display a strongly delayed and sequential uncoating. These unique features highlight the independent evolution of the plant CME mechanism during the autonomous rise of multicellularity in eukaryotes. AU - Narasimhan, Madhumitha AU - Johnson, Alexander J AU - Prizak, Roshan AU - Kaufmann, Walter AU - Tan, Shutang AU - Casillas Perez, Barbara E AU - Friml, Jiří ID - 7490 JF - eLife TI - Evolutionarily unique mechanistic framework of clathrin-mediated endocytosis in plants VL - 9 ER -