Increased genetic diversity from colony merging in termites does not improve survival against a fungal pathogen
Increased genetic diversity from colony merging in termites does not improve survival against a fungal pathogen
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DOI：
10.1038/s41598-020-61278-7
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发表时间：
2020-03-06
影响因子：
4.6
通讯作者：
Vargo, Edward L.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Aguero, Carlos M.;Eyer, Pierre-Andre;Vargo, Edward L.
在一些群居昆虫物种中，通过在一个群体中拥有多个繁殖者而增加的遗传多样性已被证明可以提高对病原菌的抵抗力。白蚁物种通常从单一交配对中发现群体，因此可能缺乏通过改变初始繁殖数量来缓冲病原体压力的灵活性，从而通过增加遗传多样性来缓冲病原体压力。然而，它们后来可以通过群体合并来增加群体多样性，从而产生一支遗传多样性但又具有凝聚力的劳动力队伍。在这项研究中，我们调查了群体融合增加的群体多样性是否有利于地下白蚁黄胸散白蚁的社会免疫。我们证实了之前的发现，即黄胸鼠的群体将很容易合并，我们表明，工蚁在合并后将同样地为筑巢的伙伴和非筑巢的伙伴梳理毛发。尽管如此，这些合并后的菌落在接触真菌病原体后的存活率并没有得到改善，而是与更敏感或更耐药的菌落持平。我们的研究几乎不支持菌落融合可能通过增加黄粉菌的遗传多样性来提高免疫力的假设。相反，我们发现，在接触致命病原体后，一个群体对合并后整个群体的生存有很大影响。
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.