ArticleRoyal Society open science2018
External immunity in ant societies: sociality and colony size do not predict investment in antimicrobials.
Article in Royal Society open science, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed, 23 citations in OpenAlex.
- Multilevel variation in pathogen susceptibility and grooming behavior in ant societies.Die Naturwissenschaften · 2026Article
- Group size rather than social status influences personal immune efficacy in a socially polymorphic bee.Biology letters · 2023Article
- Fungi as mutualistic partners in ant-plant interactions.Frontiers in fungal biology · 2023Review
- Gram-negative bacteria associated with a dominant arboreal ant species outcompete phyllosphere-associated bacteria species in a tropical canopy.Oecologia · 2021Article
- Antifungals, arthropods and antifungal resistance prevention: lessons from ecological interactions.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2021Article
- Article
- Home economics in an oak gall: behavioural and chemical immune strategies against a fungal pathogen in Temnothorax ant nests.Die Naturwissenschaften · 2019Article
- Azteca ants maintain unique microbiomes across functionally distinct nest chambers.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2019Article
- Corpse management of the invasive Argentine ant inhibits growth of pathogenic fungi.Scientific reports · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 5 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Social insects live in dense groups with a high probability of disease transmission and have therefore faced strong pressures to develop defences against pathogens. For this reason, social insects have been hypothesized to invest in antimicrobial secretions as a mechanism of external immunity to prevent the spread of disease. However, empirical studies linking the evolution of sociality with increased investment in antimicrobials have been relatively few. Here we quantify the strength of antimicrobial secretions among 20 ant species that cover a broad spectrum of ant diversity and colony sizes. We extracted external compounds from ant workers to test whether they inhibited the growth of the bacterium
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.