Sick ants become unsociable
Sick ants become unsociable
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DOI：
10.1111/j.1420-9101.2011.02425.x
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发表时间：
2012-02-01
影响因子：
2.1
通讯作者：
d'Ettorre, P.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Bos, N.;Lefevre, T.;d'Ettorre, P.
寄生虫对社会性昆虫构成严重威胁，它们形成相关个体的高密度群体，选择应该有利于降低感染风险的宿主特征。在这里，使用木匠蚂蚁（Camponotus aethiops）和通才昆虫病原真菌（绿僵菌brunneum），我们表明，受感染的蚂蚁从根本上改变他们的行为随着时间的推移，以减少殖民地感染的风险。受感染的个体（i）比未受感染的个体进行较少的社会互动，（ii）不再与育雏互动，（iii）从感染后第3天起直到死亡，大部分时间都在巢外度过。此外，受感染的蚂蚁表现出对非巢友的攻击性增加。最后，受感染的蚂蚁没有改变他们的表皮化学特征，这表明受感染的个体不会向巢友发出生理状态的信号。我们的研究结果提供了证据的进化不合群病原体感染后，在社会动物，并建议在推动这种进化的包容性健身的重要作用。
Parasites represent a severe threat to social insects, which form high-density colonies of related individuals, and selection should favour host traits that reduce infection risk. Here, using a carpenter ant (Camponotus aethiops) and a generalist insect pathogenic fungus (Metarhizium brunneum), we show that infected ants radically change their behaviour over time to reduce the risk of colony infection. Infected individuals (i) performed less social interactions than their uninfected counterparts, (ii) did not interact with brood anymore and (iii) spent most of their time outside the nest from day 3 post-infection until death. Furthermore, infected ants displayed an increased aggressiveness towards non-nestmates. Finally, infected ants did not alter their cuticular chemical profile, suggesting that infected individuals do not signal their physiological status to nestmates. Our results provide evidence for the evolution of unsociability following pathogen infection in a social animal and suggest an important role of inclusive fitness in driving such evolution.