---
_id: '2283'
abstract:
- lang: eng
text: Pathogens exert a strong selection pressure on organisms to evolve effective
immune defences. In addition to individual immunity, social organisms can act
cooperatively to produce collective defences. In many ant species, queens have
the option to found a colony alone or in groups with other, often unrelated, conspecifics.
These associations are transient, usually lasting only as long as each queen benefits
from the presence of others. In fact, once the first workers emerge, queens fight
to the death for dominance. One potential advantage of co-founding may be that
queens benefit from collective disease defences, such as mutual grooming, that
act against common soil pathogens. We test this hypothesis by exposing single
and co-founding queens to a fungal parasite, in order to assess whether queens
in co-founding associations have improved survival. Surprisingly, co-foundresses
exposed to the entomopathogenic fungus Metarhizium did not engage in cooperative
disease defences, and consequently, we find no direct benefit of multiple queens
on survival. However, an indirect benefit was observed, with parasite-exposed
queens producing more brood when they co-founded, than when they were alone. We
suggest this is due to a trade-off between reproduction and immunity. Additionally,
we report an extraordinary ability of the queens to tolerate an infection for
long periods after parasite exposure. Our study suggests that there are no social
immunity benefits for co-founding ant queens, but that in parasite-rich environments,
the presence of additional queens may nevertheless improve the chances of colony
founding success.
author:
- first_name: Christopher
full_name: Pull, Christopher
id: 3C7F4840-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87
last_name: Pull
orcid: 0000-0003-1122-3982
- first_name: William
full_name: Hughes, William
last_name: Hughes
- first_name: Markus
full_name: Brown, Markus
id: 3DAB9AFC-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87
last_name: Brown
citation:
ama: 'Pull C, Hughes W, Brown M. Tolerating an infection: an indirect benefit of
co-founding queen associations in the ant Lasius niger . Naturwissenschaften.
2013;100(12):1125-1136. doi:10.1007/s00114-013-1115-5'
apa: 'Pull, C., Hughes, W., & Brown, M. (2013). Tolerating an infection: an
indirect benefit of co-founding queen associations in the ant Lasius niger . Naturwissenschaften.
Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-013-1115-5'
chicago: 'Pull, Christopher, William Hughes, and Markus Brown. “Tolerating an Infection:
An Indirect Benefit of Co-Founding Queen Associations in the Ant Lasius Niger
.” Naturwissenschaften. Springer, 2013. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-013-1115-5.'
ieee: 'C. Pull, W. Hughes, and M. Brown, “Tolerating an infection: an indirect benefit
of co-founding queen associations in the ant Lasius niger ,” Naturwissenschaften,
vol. 100, no. 12. Springer, pp. 1125–1136, 2013.'
ista: 'Pull C, Hughes W, Brown M. 2013. Tolerating an infection: an indirect benefit
of co-founding queen associations in the ant Lasius niger . Naturwissenschaften.
100(12), 1125–1136.'
mla: 'Pull, Christopher, et al. “Tolerating an Infection: An Indirect Benefit of
Co-Founding Queen Associations in the Ant Lasius Niger .” Naturwissenschaften,
vol. 100, no. 12, Springer, 2013, pp. 1125–36, doi:10.1007/s00114-013-1115-5.'
short: C. Pull, W. Hughes, M. Brown, Naturwissenschaften 100 (2013) 1125–1136.
date_created: 2018-12-11T11:56:45Z
date_published: 2013-11-14T00:00:00Z
date_updated: 2021-01-12T06:56:31Z
day: '14'
department:
- _id: SyCr
doi: 10.1007/s00114-013-1115-5
intvolume: ' 100'
issue: '12'
language:
- iso: eng
month: '11'
oa_version: None
page: 1125 - 1136
publication: Naturwissenschaften
publication_status: published
publisher: Springer
publist_id: '4649'
quality_controlled: '1'
scopus_import: 1
status: public
title: 'Tolerating an infection: an indirect benefit of co-founding queen associations
in the ant Lasius niger '
type: journal_article
user_id: 2DF688A6-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87
volume: 100
year: '2013'
...