ArticleNature communications2024
Pathogen-specific social immunity is associated with erosion of individual immune function in an ant.
Article in Nature communications, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.
What it found
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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.
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Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed.
- Insect immune systems: same same but different but still same.Frontiers in immunology · 2026Review
- Social immunity in a supercolonial invasive ant: Nest structure confers immune function.The Journal of animal ecology · 2026Article
- miR-701 modulates the humoral immune response of Coptotermes formosanus against Metarhizium anisopliae.Insect science · 2025Article
- Synergistic effect of the next generation insecticide flupyradifurone with a fungal pathogen in the ant Lasius niger.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Article
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Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Contagious diseases are a major threat to societies in which individuals live in close contact. Social insects have evolved collective defense behaviors, such as social care or isolation of infected workers, that prevent outbreaks of pathogens. It has thus been suggested that individual immunity is reduced in species with such 'social immunity'. However, this hypothesis has not been tested functionally. Here, we characterize the immune response of the ant Lasius niger using a combination of genomic analysis, experimental infections, gene expression quantification, behavioural observations and pathogen quantifications. We uncover a striking specialization of immune responses towards different pathogens. Systemic individual immunity is effective against opportunistic bacterial infections, which are not covered by social immunity, but is not elicited upon fungal infections, which are effectively controlled by social immunity. This specialization suggests that immune layers have evolved complementary functions predicted to ensure the most cost-effective response against a wide range of pathogens.
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Registered trials
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