---
_id: '616'
abstract:
- lang: eng
text: Social insects protect their colonies from infectious disease through collective
defences that result in social immunity. In ants, workers first try to prevent
infection of colony members. Here, we show that if this fails and a pathogen establishes
an infection, ants employ an efficient multicomponent behaviour − "destructive
disinfection" − to prevent further spread of disease through the colony.
Ants specifically target infected pupae during the pathogen's non-contagious incubation
period, relying on chemical 'sickness cues' emitted by pupae. They then remove
the pupal cocoon, perforate its cuticle and administer antimicrobial poison, which
enters the body and prevents pathogen replication from the inside out. Like the
immune system of a body that specifically targets and eliminates infected cells,
this social immunity measure sacrifices infected brood to stop the pathogen completing
its lifecycle, thus protecting the rest of the colony. Hence, the same principles
of disease defence apply at different levels of biological organisation.
article_number: e32073
article_processing_charge: Yes
author:
- first_name: Christopher
full_name: Pull, Christopher
id: 3C7F4840-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87
last_name: Pull
orcid: 0000-0003-1122-3982
- first_name: Line V
full_name: Ugelvig, Line V
id: 3DC97C8E-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87
last_name: Ugelvig
orcid: 0000-0003-1832-8883
- first_name: Florian
full_name: Wiesenhofer, Florian
id: 39523C54-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87
last_name: Wiesenhofer
- first_name: Anna V
full_name: Grasse, Anna V
id: 406F989C-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87
last_name: Grasse
- first_name: Simon
full_name: Tragust, Simon
id: 35A7A418-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87
last_name: Tragust
- first_name: Thomas
full_name: Schmitt, Thomas
last_name: Schmitt
- first_name: Mark
full_name: Brown, Mark
last_name: Brown
- first_name: Sylvia
full_name: Cremer, Sylvia
id: 2F64EC8C-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87
last_name: Cremer
orcid: 0000-0002-2193-3868
citation:
ama: Pull C, Ugelvig LV, Wiesenhofer F, et al. Destructive disinfection of infected
brood prevents systemic disease spread in ant colonies. eLife. 2018;7.
doi:10.7554/eLife.32073
apa: Pull, C., Ugelvig, L. V., Wiesenhofer, F., Grasse, A. V., Tragust, S., Schmitt,
T., … Cremer, S. (2018). Destructive disinfection of infected brood prevents systemic
disease spread in ant colonies. ELife. eLife Sciences Publications. https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.32073
chicago: Pull, Christopher, Line V Ugelvig, Florian Wiesenhofer, Anna V Grasse,
Simon Tragust, Thomas Schmitt, Mark Brown, and Sylvia Cremer. “Destructive Disinfection
of Infected Brood Prevents Systemic Disease Spread in Ant Colonies.” ELife.
eLife Sciences Publications, 2018. https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.32073.
ieee: C. Pull et al., “Destructive disinfection of infected brood prevents
systemic disease spread in ant colonies,” eLife, vol. 7. eLife Sciences
Publications, 2018.
ista: Pull C, Ugelvig LV, Wiesenhofer F, Grasse AV, Tragust S, Schmitt T, Brown
M, Cremer S. 2018. Destructive disinfection of infected brood prevents systemic
disease spread in ant colonies. eLife. 7, e32073.
mla: Pull, Christopher, et al. “Destructive Disinfection of Infected Brood Prevents
Systemic Disease Spread in Ant Colonies.” ELife, vol. 7, e32073, eLife
Sciences Publications, 2018, doi:10.7554/eLife.32073.
short: C. Pull, L.V. Ugelvig, F. Wiesenhofer, A.V. Grasse, S. Tragust, T. Schmitt,
M. Brown, S. Cremer, ELife 7 (2018).
date_created: 2018-12-11T11:47:31Z
date_published: 2018-01-09T00:00:00Z
date_updated: 2023-09-11T12:54:26Z
day: '09'
ddc:
- '570'
- '590'
department:
- _id: SyCr
doi: 10.7554/eLife.32073
ec_funded: 1
external_id:
isi:
- '000419601300001'
file:
- access_level: open_access
checksum: 540f941e8d3530a9441e4affd94f07d7
content_type: application/pdf
creator: system
date_created: 2018-12-12T10:10:43Z
date_updated: 2020-07-14T12:47:20Z
file_id: '4832'
file_name: IST-2018-978-v1+1_elife-32073-v1.pdf
file_size: 1435585
relation: main_file
file_date_updated: 2020-07-14T12:47:20Z
has_accepted_license: '1'
intvolume: ' 7'
isi: 1
language:
- iso: eng
month: '01'
oa: 1
oa_version: Published Version
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'
- _id: 25DDF0F0-B435-11E9-9278-68D0E5697425
call_identifier: FP7
grant_number: '302004'
name: 'Pathogen Detectors Collective disease defence and pathogen detection abilities
in ant societies: a chemo-neuro-immunological approach'
publication: eLife
publication_status: published
publisher: eLife Sciences Publications
publist_id: '7188'
pubrep_id: '978'
quality_controlled: '1'
related_material:
record:
- id: '819'
relation: dissertation_contains
status: public
scopus_import: '1'
status: public
title: Destructive disinfection of infected brood prevents systemic disease spread
in ant colonies
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: 7
year: '2018'
...