---
APC_amount: 7068 EUR
DOAJ_listed: '1'
OA_place: publisher
OA_type: gold
PlanS_conform: '1'
_id: '18892'
abstract:
- lang: eng
  text: Sick individuals often conceal their disease status to group members, thereby
    preventing social exclusion or aggression. Here we show by behavioural, chemical,
    immunological and infection load analyses that sick ant pupae instead actively
    emit a chemical signal that in itself is sufficient to trigger their own destruction
    by colony members. In our experiments, this altruistic disease-signalling was
    performed only by worker but not queen pupae. The lack of signalling by queen
    pupae did not constitute cheating behaviour, but reflected their superior immune
    capabilities. Worker pupae suffered from extensive pathogen replication whereas
    queen pupae were able to restrain their infection. Our data suggest the evolution
    of a finely-tuned signalling system in which it is not the induction of an individual’s
    immune response, but rather its failure to overcome the infection, that triggers
    pupal signalling for sacrifice. This demonstrates a balanced interplay between
    individual and social immunity that efficiently achieves whole-colony health.
acknowledged_ssus:
- _id: LifeSc
- _id: MassSpec
acknowledgement: We thank Joergen Eilenberg and Nicolai V. Meyling for the fungal
  strain, and the ISTA Social Immunity team, Jonghyun Park and Yuko Ulrich for ant
  collection. We also thank the Social Immunity team, in particular David Moreno Martínez,
  Tanvi Madaan, Wilfrid Jean Louis and Jessica Kirchner, for experimental and molecular
  support, as well as Friedrich Fochler for technical support with the chemical analysis,
  and the ISTA Lab Support Facility, including the mass spectrometry unit, for general
  and chemical laboratory support. We further thank Marco Ribezzi for advice on 13C
  calculations and Ernst Pittenauer for discussion of the chemical data, Chris Pull
  and Michael Sixt for project discussion, and the Social Immunity team for comments
  on the manuscript. The study was funded by the European Research Council (ERC) under
  the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation Programme (No. 771402;
  EPIDEMICSonCHIP) to SC.
article_number: '10511'
article_processing_charge: Yes
article_type: original
author:
- first_name: Erika
  full_name: Dawson, Erika
  id: 31B4E2D0-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87
  last_name: Dawson
- first_name: Michaela
  full_name: Hönigsberger, Michaela
  id: 953894f3-25bd-11ec-8556-f70a9d38ef60
  last_name: Hönigsberger
- first_name: Niklas
  full_name: Kampleitner, Niklas
  id: 2AC57FAC-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87
  last_name: Kampleitner
- first_name: Anna V
  full_name: Grasse, Anna V
  id: 406F989C-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87
  last_name: Grasse
- first_name: Lukas
  full_name: Lindorfer, Lukas
  id: 85f0e6d3-06b3-11ec-8982-8c5049fa4455
  last_name: Lindorfer
- first_name: Jennifer
  full_name: Robb, Jennifer
  id: 7bc2734a-e2c6-11ea-9824-a2ed5f0662a8
  last_name: Robb
- first_name: Farnaz
  full_name: Beikzadeh Abbasi, Farnaz
  id: 0344bfb9-3feb-11ee-87e9-c27edc800bcd
  last_name: Beikzadeh Abbasi
- first_name: Florian
  full_name: Strahodinsky, Florian
  id: 979E35EE-C996-11E9-8C7C-CF13E6697425
  last_name: Strahodinsky
- first_name: Hanna
  full_name: Leitner, Hanna
  id: 8fc5c6f6-5903-11ec-abad-c83f046253e7
  last_name: Leitner
- first_name: Harikrishnan
  full_name: Rajendran, Harikrishnan
  id: 876b6b34-8ff4-11ec-97c9-8d95a7aae416
  last_name: Rajendran
- first_name: Thomas
  full_name: Schmitt, Thomas
  last_name: Schmitt
- first_name: Sylvia
  full_name: Cremer, Sylvia
  id: 2F64EC8C-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87
  last_name: Cremer
  orcid: 0000-0002-2193-3868
citation:
  ama: Dawson E, Hönigsberger M, Kampleitner N, et al. Altruistic disease signalling
    in ant colonies. <i>Nature Communications</i>. 2025;16. doi:<a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-66175-z">10.1038/s41467-025-66175-z</a>
  apa: Dawson, E., Hönigsberger, M., Kampleitner, N., Grasse, A. V., Lindorfer, L.,
    Robb, J., … Cremer, S. (2025). Altruistic disease signalling in ant colonies.
    <i>Nature Communications</i>. Springer Nature. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-66175-z">https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-66175-z</a>
  chicago: Dawson, Erika, Michaela Hönigsberger, Niklas Kampleitner, Anna V Grasse,
    Lukas Lindorfer, Jennifer Robb, Farnaz Beikzadeh, et al. “Altruistic Disease Signalling
    in Ant Colonies.” <i>Nature Communications</i>. Springer Nature, 2025. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-66175-z">https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-66175-z</a>.
  ieee: E. Dawson <i>et al.</i>, “Altruistic disease signalling in ant colonies,”
    <i>Nature Communications</i>, vol. 16. Springer Nature, 2025.
  ista: Dawson E, Hönigsberger M, Kampleitner N, Grasse AV, Lindorfer L, Robb J, Beikzadeh
    F, Strahodinsky F, Leitner H, Rajendran H, Schmitt T, Cremer S. 2025. Altruistic
    disease signalling in ant colonies. Nature Communications. 16, 10511.
  mla: Dawson, Erika, et al. “Altruistic Disease Signalling in Ant Colonies.” <i>Nature
    Communications</i>, vol. 16, 10511, Springer Nature, 2025, doi:<a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-66175-z">10.1038/s41467-025-66175-z</a>.
  short: E. Dawson, M. Hönigsberger, N. Kampleitner, A.V. Grasse, L. Lindorfer, J.
    Robb, F. Beikzadeh, F. Strahodinsky, H. Leitner, H. Rajendran, T. Schmitt, S.
    Cremer, Nature Communications 16 (2025).
corr_author: '1'
date_created: 2025-01-27T11:28:05Z
date_published: 2025-12-01T00:00:00Z
date_updated: 2026-06-10T08:50:53Z
day: '01'
ddc:
- '570'
department:
- _id: SyCr
- _id: LifeSc
doi: 10.1038/s41467-025-66175-z
ec_funded: 1
external_id:
  pmid:
  - '41330896'
file:
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has_accepted_license: '1'
intvolume: '        16'
language:
- iso: eng
license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
main_file_link:
- open_access: '1'
  url: https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.02.27.582277
month: '12'
oa: 1
oa_version: Published Version
pmid: 1
project:
- _id: 2649B4DE-B435-11E9-9278-68D0E5697425
  call_identifier: H2020
  grant_number: '771402'
  name: Epidemics in ant societies on a chip
- _id: B67AFEDC-15C9-11EA-A837-991A96BB2854
  name: IST Austria Open Access Fund
publication: Nature Communications
publication_identifier:
  eissn:
  - 2041-1723
publication_status: published
publisher: Springer Nature
quality_controlled: '1'
related_material:
  link:
  - description: News on ISTA website
    relation: press_release
    url: https://ista.ac.at/en/news/ants-signal-deadly-infection/
  record:
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    relation: research_data
    status: public
scopus_import: '1'
status: public
title: Altruistic disease signalling in ant colonies
tmp:
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  legal_code_url: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode
  name: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0)
  short: CC BY (4.0)
type: journal_article
user_id: 2DF688A6-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87
volume: 16
year: '2025'
...
---
OA_place: publisher
_id: '19993'
abstract:
- lang: eng
  text: "Ants are frequently challenged by different pathogens, which they counter
    with\r\nindividual and collective responses. Usually, the pathogens like fungi
    or viruses are\r\nsolitary and passive pathogens transmitted from host to host.
    Here, we use a nematobacterial pathogen complex to study worm-borne disease in
    black garden ants. These\r\nentomopathogenic nematodes are active parasites with
    an own behavior and chasing\r\npray.\r\nIn the first chapter, we investigated
    the basic biology of the host-pathogen relationship.\r\nWe tested different ant
    life stages and found that adult ants display defense behaviors\r\nand are generally
    resistant to nematode infection, whereas brood is highly susceptible.\r\nIn the
    case of worker pupae, we found a slight protective effect of the cocoon. When\r\nlarvae
    are accompanied by adults, meaning a queen or a group of workers, survival is\r\nsignificantly
    enhanced. Moreover, we found that nematodes can transmit from infected\r\ncadavers
    to healthy worker larvae, confirming a transmissible disease in ants. Again,\r\nworker
    presence significantly reduces transmission risk. In the end, we were also able\r\nto
    disentangle the pathogen system and investigate the pathogenic effect of the\r\nbacterial
    and nematode components.\r\nIn the second chapter, we studied the effect of multiple
    infections in adult queens and\r\nqueen larvae. By multiple exposures in the mode
    of coinfection and superinfections,\r\nwe wanted to assess the detrimental effect
    of combined fungal and nematode\r\nexposure to better understand how the pathogens
    interact with each other in an ant\r\nhost. We found instances where combined
    exposure lead to higher mortality in a given\r\ntime frame in both, adult queens
    and queen larvae.\r\nOverall entomopathogenic nematodes are a promising model
    to study worm infections\r\nin ants which extend our knowledge on collective disease
    defense."
acknowledged_ssus:
- _id: LifeSc
alternative_title:
- ISTA Thesis
article_processing_charge: No
author:
- first_name: Florian
  full_name: Strahodinsky, Florian
  id: 979E35EE-C996-11E9-8C7C-CF13E6697425
  last_name: Strahodinsky
citation:
  ama: Strahodinsky F. Social immunity in a tri-partite host-pathogen relationship.
    2025. doi:<a href="https://doi.org/10.15479/AT-ISTA-19993">10.15479/AT-ISTA-19993</a>
  apa: Strahodinsky, F. (2025). <i>Social immunity in a tri-partite host-pathogen
    relationship</i>. Institute of Science and Technology Austria. <a href="https://doi.org/10.15479/AT-ISTA-19993">https://doi.org/10.15479/AT-ISTA-19993</a>
  chicago: Strahodinsky, Florian. “Social Immunity in a Tri-Partite Host-Pathogen
    Relationship.” Institute of Science and Technology Austria, 2025. <a href="https://doi.org/10.15479/AT-ISTA-19993">https://doi.org/10.15479/AT-ISTA-19993</a>.
  ieee: F. Strahodinsky, “Social immunity in a tri-partite host-pathogen relationship,”
    Institute of Science and Technology Austria, 2025.
  ista: Strahodinsky F. 2025. Social immunity in a tri-partite host-pathogen relationship.
    Institute of Science and Technology Austria.
  mla: Strahodinsky, Florian. <i>Social Immunity in a Tri-Partite Host-Pathogen Relationship</i>.
    Institute of Science and Technology Austria, 2025, doi:<a href="https://doi.org/10.15479/AT-ISTA-19993">10.15479/AT-ISTA-19993</a>.
  short: F. Strahodinsky, Social Immunity in a Tri-Partite Host-Pathogen Relationship,
    Institute of Science and Technology Austria, 2025.
corr_author: '1'
date_created: 2025-07-10T14:12:20Z
date_published: 2025-07-11T00:00:00Z
date_updated: 2026-04-07T12:39:58Z
day: '11'
ddc:
- '570'
degree_awarded: PhD
department:
- _id: GradSch
- _id: SyCr
doi: 10.15479/AT-ISTA-19993
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has_accepted_license: '1'
language:
- iso: eng
license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
month: '07'
oa: 1
oa_version: Published Version
page: '138'
publication_identifier:
  issn:
  - 2663-337X
publication_status: published
publisher: Institute of Science and Technology Austria
status: public
supervisor:
- first_name: Sylvia
  full_name: Cremer, Sylvia
  id: 2F64EC8C-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87
  last_name: Cremer
  orcid: 0000-0002-2193-3868
title: Social immunity in a tri-partite host-pathogen relationship
tmp:
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  legal_code_url: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/legalcode
  name: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
    (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)
  short: CC BY-NC-ND (4.0)
type: dissertation
user_id: ba8df636-2132-11f1-aed0-ed93e2281fdd
year: '2025'
...