ArticleScientific reports2020
Increased genetic diversity from colony merging in termites does not improve survival against a fungal pathogen.
Article in Scientific reports, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.
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Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed, 20 citations in OpenAlex.
- A new narrative for social immunity research in termites.Trends open · 2026Review
- Defensive behavior is linked to altered surface chemistry following infection in a termite society.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Us, them, and the others: Testing for discrimination amongst outgroups in a single-piece nesting termite,Ecology and evolution · 2023Article
- Short and long-term costs of inbreeding in the lifelong-partnership in a termite.Communications biology · 2022Article
- Reduced Environmental Microbial Diversity on the Cuticle and in the Galleries of a Subterranean Termite Compared to Surrounding Soil.Microbial ecology · 2021Article
- Natural variation in colony inbreeding does not influence susceptibility to a fungal pathogen in a termite.Ecology and evolution · 2021Article
- Article
- Distinct chemical blends produced by different reproductive castes in the subterranean termite Reticulitermes flavipes.Scientific reports · 2021Article
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
In some species of social insects the increased genetic diversity from having multiple breeders in a colony has been shown to improve pathogen resistance. Termite species typically found colonies from single mated pairs and therefore may lack the flexibility to buffer pathogen pressure with increased genetic diversity by varying the initial number of reproductives. However, they can later increase group diversity through colony merging, resulting in a genetically diverse, yet cohesive, workforce. In this study, we investigate whether the increased group diversity from colony fusion benefits social immunity in the subterranean termite Reticulitermes flavipes. We confirm previous findings that colonies of R. flavipes will readily merge and we show that workers will equally groom nestmates and non-nestmates after merging. Despite this, the survival of these merged colonies was not improved after exposure to a fungal pathogen, but instead leveled to that of the more susceptible or the more resistant colony. Our study brings little support to the hypothesis that colony fusion may improve immunity through an increase of genetic diversity in R. flavipes. Instead, we find that following exposure to a lethal pathogen, one colony is heavily influential to the entire group's survival after merging.
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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.