[{"publication_status":"published","_id":"21453","language":[{"iso":"eng"}],"publication_identifier":{"eissn":["2041-210X"]},"department":[{"_id":"SyCr"}],"day":"01","has_accepted_license":"1","dataavailabilitystatement":"Data available via https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.16893940 (Oh, 2025), and the code is available at Github, https://github.com/jinook0707/CremerGroupApp.","researchdata_availability":"yes","month":"04","article_type":"original","publication":"Methods in Ecology and Evolution","date_updated":"2026-07-27T11:31:10Z","doi":"10.1111/2041-210x.70277","acknowledgement":"We thank Harikrishnan Rajendran for discussion. This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme (grant agreement No. 771402; EPIDEMICSonCHIP to S.C.). Open Access funding provided by Institute of Science and Technology Austria/KEMÖ.","OA_place":"publisher","biorxivid":1,"author":[{"orcid":"0000-0001-7425-2372","last_name":"Oh","full_name":"Oh, Jinook","first_name":"Jinook","id":"403169A4-080F-11EA-9993-BF3F3DDC885E"},{"orcid":"0000-0002-2193-3868","first_name":"Sylvia","full_name":"Cremer, Sylvia","last_name":"Cremer","id":"2F64EC8C-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87"}],"OA_type":"gold","citation":{"ieee":"J. Oh and S. Cremer, “ALTAA: Analysis of long-term activity patterns in ant colonies,” <i>Methods in Ecology and Evolution</i>, vol. 17, no. 4. Wiley, pp. 1218–1234, 2026.","mla":"Oh, Jinook, and Sylvia Cremer. “ALTAA: Analysis of Long-Term Activity Patterns in Ant Colonies.” <i>Methods in Ecology and Evolution</i>, vol. 17, no. 4, Wiley, 2026, pp. 1218–34, doi:<a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1111/2041-210x.70277\">10.1111/2041-210x.70277</a>.","ista":"Oh J, Cremer S. 2026. ALTAA: Analysis of long-term activity patterns in ant colonies. Methods in Ecology and Evolution. 17(4), 1218–1234.","short":"J. Oh, S. Cremer, Methods in Ecology and Evolution 17 (2026) 1218–1234.","ama":"Oh J, Cremer S. ALTAA: Analysis of long-term activity patterns in ant colonies. <i>Methods in Ecology and Evolution</i>. 2026;17(4):1218-1234. doi:<a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1111/2041-210x.70277\">10.1111/2041-210x.70277</a>","chicago":"Oh, Jinook, and Sylvia Cremer. “ALTAA: Analysis of Long-Term Activity Patterns in Ant Colonies.” <i>Methods in Ecology and Evolution</i>. Wiley, 2026. <a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1111/2041-210x.70277\">https://doi.org/10.1111/2041-210x.70277</a>.","apa":"Oh, J., &#38; Cremer, S. (2026). ALTAA: Analysis of long-term activity patterns in ant colonies. <i>Methods in Ecology and Evolution</i>. Wiley. <a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1111/2041-210x.70277\">https://doi.org/10.1111/2041-210x.70277</a>"},"volume":17,"title":"ALTAA: Analysis of long-term activity patterns in ant colonies","tmp":{"image":"/images/cc_by.png","name":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0)","short":"CC BY (4.0)","legal_code_url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode"},"type":"journal_article","oa_version":"Published Version","project":[{"call_identifier":"H2020","grant_number":"771402","name":"Epidemics in ant societies on a chip","_id":"2649B4DE-B435-11E9-9278-68D0E5697425"}],"DOAJ_listed":"1","status":"public","PlanS_conform":"1","corr_author":"1","page":"1218-1234","intvolume":"        17","year":"2026","abstract":[{"lang":"eng","text":"1. Collective behaviours are a fascinating study area due to the emergent properties that can only arise in groups of interacting individuals. However, their quantitative study is often impaired by technical difficulties, creating either low-quality and sparse data or impractical data amounts, particularly when capturing large groups over long periods of time. Common challenges arise from recording group members with as little obscuring of each other as possible, as well as in generating manageable data amounts with as high as possible information content.\r\n2. We here provide a multicomponent system that allows to record, analyse and simulate the long-term spatiotemporal activity patterns of insect collectives, especially ant colonies. Our Ant Observing System, ALTAA, comprises a flat-nest design to prevent occlusion of individuals, a recording system running on a low-power single-board-computer, and a set of computer programmes performing quantitative analyses to guide the formation and validation of rules underlying the observed collective patterns. Our system is scalable in that it allows parallel, continuous observation of a high number of colonies using low memory space, with colony maintenance requirements (e.g. feeding, nest humidity) being achieved at lowest possible disturbance by the experimenter.\r\n3. We showcase the potential of the system in a study using the black garden ant, Lasius niger, where we analyse the spatiotemporal effects of different group sizes (1, 6, 10 ants), brood (larvae) presence or absence, as well as of different nest geometries, over a period of 1 week. We show that the ants' motion activity has a weak periodicity in the range of 20 to 120 min promoted by larval presence, and that ants are spatially attracted to their larvae, the water source and the walls. We also find that the presence of nestmates lowers an individual ant's motion activity. Observed data are compared to simulations of the temporal activity of the ants.\r\n4. ALTAA provides a powerful toolkit to quantify and interpret spatial and temporal collective activity patterns in (social) insects over extended periods."}],"issue":"4","publisher":"Wiley","file":[{"relation":"main_file","access_level":"open_access","success":1,"checksum":"5f2a44daa57f757c8d5226bb3d80680b","file_id":"22422","content_type":"application/pdf","file_size":7154332,"date_created":"2026-07-27T11:30:53Z","date_updated":"2026-07-27T11:30:53Z","file_name":"2026_MethodsEcologyEvolution_Oh.pdf","creator":"dernst"}],"quality_controlled":"1","oa":1,"external_id":{"biorxivid":["10.1101/2025.08.11.669637"]},"date_published":"2026-04-01T00:00:00Z","supplementarymaterial":"yes","user_id":"2DF688A6-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87","scopus_import":"1","ec_funded":1,"ddc":["570"],"file_date_updated":"2026-07-27T11:30:53Z","article_processing_charge":"Yes","das_tickbox":"1","date_created":"2026-03-15T23:01:36Z"},{"doi":"10.1038/s41467-025-66175-z","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.","OA_type":"gold","author":[{"first_name":"Erika","full_name":"Dawson, Erika","last_name":"Dawson","id":"31B4E2D0-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87"},{"id":"953894f3-25bd-11ec-8556-f70a9d38ef60","last_name":"Hönigsberger","full_name":"Hönigsberger, Michaela","first_name":"Michaela"},{"id":"2AC57FAC-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87","last_name":"Kampleitner","full_name":"Kampleitner, Niklas","first_name":"Niklas"},{"full_name":"Grasse, Anna V","first_name":"Anna V","last_name":"Grasse","id":"406F989C-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87"},{"id":"85f0e6d3-06b3-11ec-8982-8c5049fa4455","first_name":"Lukas","full_name":"Lindorfer, Lukas","last_name":"Lindorfer"},{"id":"7bc2734a-e2c6-11ea-9824-a2ed5f0662a8","last_name":"Robb","first_name":"Jennifer","full_name":"Robb, Jennifer"},{"id":"0344bfb9-3feb-11ee-87e9-c27edc800bcd","last_name":"Beikzadeh Abbasi","first_name":"Farnaz","full_name":"Beikzadeh Abbasi, Farnaz"},{"last_name":"Strahodinsky","first_name":"Florian","full_name":"Strahodinsky, Florian","id":"979E35EE-C996-11E9-8C7C-CF13E6697425"},{"id":"8fc5c6f6-5903-11ec-abad-c83f046253e7","first_name":"Hanna","full_name":"Leitner, Hanna","last_name":"Leitner"},{"id":"876b6b34-8ff4-11ec-97c9-8d95a7aae416","last_name":"Rajendran","full_name":"Rajendran, Harikrishnan","first_name":"Harikrishnan"},{"last_name":"Schmitt","full_name":"Schmitt, Thomas","first_name":"Thomas"},{"last_name":"Cremer","full_name":"Cremer, Sylvia","first_name":"Sylvia","id":"2F64EC8C-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87","orcid":"0000-0002-2193-3868"}],"OA_place":"publisher","volume":16,"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>","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>.","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>","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).","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>.","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."},"title":"Altruistic disease signalling in ant colonies","oa_version":"Published Version","tmp":{"image":"/images/cc_by.png","name":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0)","short":"CC BY (4.0)","legal_code_url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode"},"type":"journal_article","language":[{"iso":"eng"}],"_id":"18892","publication_status":"published","department":[{"_id":"SyCr"},{"_id":"LifeSc"}],"day":"01","publication_identifier":{"eissn":["2041-1723"]},"has_accepted_license":"1","related_material":{"record":[{"relation":"research_data","status":"public","id":"20471"}],"link":[{"url":"https://ista.ac.at/en/news/ants-signal-deadly-infection/","description":"News on ISTA website","relation":"press_release"}]},"article_number":"10511","month":"12","article_type":"original","publication":"Nature Communications","date_updated":"2026-06-10T08:50:53Z","acknowledged_ssus":[{"_id":"LifeSc"},{"_id":"MassSpec"}],"file":[{"success":1,"relation":"main_file","access_level":"open_access","file_id":"20826","content_type":"application/pdf","checksum":"06244623bb7611c636652ecbc4787889","date_created":"2025-12-15T13:30:33Z","date_updated":"2025-12-15T13:30:33Z","file_size":805323,"creator":"dernst","file_name":"2025_NatureComm_Dawson.pdf"}],"publisher":"Springer Nature","external_id":{"pmid":["41330896"]},"oa":1,"quality_controlled":"1","pmid":1,"ddc":["570"],"date_published":"2025-12-01T00:00:00Z","user_id":"2DF688A6-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87","ec_funded":1,"scopus_import":"1","date_created":"2025-01-27T11:28:05Z","article_processing_charge":"Yes","file_date_updated":"2025-12-15T13:30:33Z","DOAJ_listed":"1","project":[{"_id":"2649B4DE-B435-11E9-9278-68D0E5697425","name":"Epidemics in ant societies on a chip","grant_number":"771402","call_identifier":"H2020"},{"name":"IST Austria Open Access Fund","_id":"B67AFEDC-15C9-11EA-A837-991A96BB2854"}],"status":"public","APC_amount":"7068 EUR","corr_author":"1","PlanS_conform":"1","intvolume":"        16","year":"2025","main_file_link":[{"open_access":"1","url":"https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.02.27.582277"}],"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."}]},{"publisher":"Institute of Science and Technology Austria","file":[{"checksum":"01fbc46af38c4f72970fe2865d47a29b","content_type":"text/plain","file_id":"20474","relation":"main_file","access_level":"open_access","success":1,"file_name":"Dawson_etal_README.txt","creator":"scremer","file_size":620,"date_updated":"2025-10-16T08:52:07Z","date_created":"2025-10-16T08:52:07Z"},{"success":1,"access_level":"open_access","relation":"main_file","content_type":"application/pdf","file_id":"20475","checksum":"c3cfd7659e6fd4a6f4397ca5cd3318e7","date_updated":"2025-10-16T08:52:12Z","date_created":"2025-10-16T08:52:12Z","file_size":942172,"creator":"scremer","file_name":"Dawson_etal_Mass_Spectra.pdf"},{"file_name":"Dawson_etal_Peak_Areas.xlsx","creator":"scremer","date_created":"2025-10-16T08:52:26Z","date_updated":"2025-10-16T08:52:26Z","file_size":582129,"content_type":"application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet","file_id":"20476","checksum":"e5ff8e8fdf2520d18d9f1d11c60c1117","success":1,"relation":"main_file","access_level":"open_access"}],"oa":1,"keyword":["host-parasite interactions","social insects","social immunity","chemical communication","cooperation"],"file_date_updated":"2025-10-16T08:52:26Z","article_processing_charge":"No","date_created":"2025-10-16T09:02:16Z","user_id":"68b8ca59-c5b3-11ee-8790-cd641c68093d","date_published":"2025-10-16T00:00:00Z","ec_funded":1,"ddc":["570"],"corr_author":"1","project":[{"_id":"2649B4DE-B435-11E9-9278-68D0E5697425","name":"Epidemics in ant societies on a chip","call_identifier":"H2020","grant_number":"771402"}],"status":"public","contributor":[{"id":"31B4E2D0-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87","first_name":"Erika","last_name":"Dawson"},{"first_name":"Michaela","last_name":"Hönigsberger","id":"953894f3-25bd-11ec-8556-f70a9d38ef60"},{"first_name":"Niklas","last_name":"Kampleitner","id":"2AC57FAC-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87"},{"first_name":"Anna V","last_name":"Grasse","id":"406F989C-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87"},{"id":"85f0e6d3-06b3-11ec-8982-8c5049fa4455","first_name":"Lukas","last_name":"Lindorfer"},{"id":"7bc2734a-e2c6-11ea-9824-a2ed5f0662a8","first_name":"Jennifer","last_name":"Robb"},{"last_name":"Beikzadeh Abbasi","first_name":"Farnaz","id":"0344bfb9-3feb-11ee-87e9-c27edc800bcd"},{"id":"979E35EE-C996-11E9-8C7C-CF13E6697425","last_name":"Strahodinsky","first_name":"Florian"},{"last_name":"Leitner","first_name":"Hanna","id":"8fc5c6f6-5903-11ec-abad-c83f046253e7"},{"id":"876b6b34-8ff4-11ec-97c9-8d95a7aae416","first_name":"Harikrishnan","last_name":"Rajendran"},{"last_name":"Schmitt","first_name":"Thomas"},{"orcid":"0000-0002-2193-3868","id":"2F64EC8C-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87","first_name":"Sylvia","last_name":"Cremer"}],"abstract":[{"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. ","lang":"eng"}],"year":"2025","author":[{"first_name":"Sylvia","full_name":"Cremer, Sylvia","last_name":"Cremer","id":"2F64EC8C-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87","orcid":"0000-0002-2193-3868"}],"doi":"10.15479/AT-ISTA-20471","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. ","tmp":{"short":"CC BY-NC-ND (4.0)","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)","image":"/images/cc_by_nc_nd.png"},"oa_version":"Published Version","type":"research_data","citation":{"ieee":"S. Cremer, “Altruistic disease signalling in ant colonies.” Institute of Science and Technology Austria, 2025.","mla":"Cremer, Sylvia. <i>Altruistic Disease Signalling in Ant Colonies</i>. Institute of Science and Technology Austria, 2025, doi:<a href=\"https://doi.org/10.15479/AT-ISTA-20471\">10.15479/AT-ISTA-20471</a>.","ista":"Cremer S. 2025. Altruistic disease signalling in ant colonies, Institute of Science and Technology Austria, <a href=\"https://doi.org/10.15479/AT-ISTA-20471\">10.15479/AT-ISTA-20471</a>.","ama":"Cremer S. Altruistic disease signalling in ant colonies. 2025. doi:<a href=\"https://doi.org/10.15479/AT-ISTA-20471\">10.15479/AT-ISTA-20471</a>","chicago":"Cremer, Sylvia. “Altruistic Disease Signalling in Ant Colonies.” Institute of Science and Technology Austria, 2025. <a href=\"https://doi.org/10.15479/AT-ISTA-20471\">https://doi.org/10.15479/AT-ISTA-20471</a>.","apa":"Cremer, S. (2025). Altruistic disease signalling in ant colonies. Institute of Science and Technology Austria. <a href=\"https://doi.org/10.15479/AT-ISTA-20471\">https://doi.org/10.15479/AT-ISTA-20471</a>","short":"S. Cremer, (2025)."},"title":"Altruistic disease signalling in ant colonies","has_accepted_license":"1","related_material":{"record":[{"status":"public","id":"18892","relation":"used_in_publication"}]},"_id":"20471","department":[{"_id":"SyCr"}],"day":"16","date_updated":"2026-06-10T08:50:53Z","month":"10"},{"project":[{"name":"Epidemics in ant societies on a chip","_id":"2649B4DE-B435-11E9-9278-68D0E5697425","call_identifier":"H2020","grant_number":"771402"}],"supervisor":[{"full_name":"Cremer, Sylvia","first_name":"Sylvia","last_name":"Cremer","id":"2F64EC8C-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87","orcid":"0000-0002-2193-3868"}],"status":"public","page":"85","corr_author":"1","year":"2025","degree_awarded":"PhD","abstract":[{"lang":"eng","text":"Social interaction networks of insect colonies facilitate efficient information exchange and\r\ndemonstrate adaptive changes to mitigate disease transmission. While circadian rhythms\r\ninfluence individual behaviour, their role in shaping colony-level defences against pathogens\r\nremains unexplored. Here, we investigate whether social networks of the black garden ant,\r\nLasius niger, exhibit circadian rhythms and how these rhythms influence disease vulnerability\r\nwhen colonies are exposed to a pathogen during the day or the night.\r\nWe first establish baseline daily variations in activity and network dynamics in pathogen-free\r\ncolonies, revealing constitutive daily fluctuations in disease susceptibility. Subsequently, we\r\nexamine pathogen-induced changes in sanitary care and network dynamics by exposing\r\nforagers to a natural pathogen (Metarhizium brunneum) during either the day or the night.\r\nIndividual pathogen loads were measured after a nine-hour post-exposure period to evaluate\r\ntransmission outcomes.\r\nOur results demonstrate that diurnal ant colonies maintain robust circadian patterns in network\r\nproperties while flexibly adapting to pathogen exposure. Ants upregulate sanitary care\r\nirrespective of exposure timing, prioritising the protection of the valuable colony centre\r\nconsisting of nurses and the queen. These findings underscore the robustness and adaptability\r\nof ant colonies in balancing circadian rhythms with effective social immune responses."}],"publisher":"Institute of Science and Technology Austria","file":[{"file_size":7129583,"date_created":"2025-03-07T10:16:11Z","date_updated":"2026-02-23T23:30:03Z","embargo_to":"open_access","file_name":"Thesis_Linda_Sartoris.docx","creator":"lsartori","access_level":"closed","relation":"source_file","checksum":"7e9466dcf3681454211b74b5107e9f7b","content_type":"application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document","file_id":"19310"},{"file_id":"19384","content_type":"application/pdf","checksum":"2ccfcf32f0590bb0ec1a488e606a73f5","relation":"other","access_level":"closed","embargo_to":"open_access","creator":"lsartori","file_name":"thesis_Sartoris_for_print.pdf","description":"for printing purposes only","date_created":"2025-03-11T10:42:20Z","date_updated":"2026-03-02T23:31:13Z","file_size":3199703},{"date_updated":"2026-02-23T23:30:03Z","date_created":"2025-03-11T10:52:00Z","file_size":3183186,"creator":"lsartori","file_name":"Thesis_Linda_Sartoris.pdf","embargo":"2026-02-23","relation":"main_file","access_level":"open_access","content_type":"application/pdf","file_id":"19385","checksum":"1d1f3c1279065b1a7f407ff6d1ee1503"}],"oa":1,"date_published":"2025-02-24T00:00:00Z","user_id":"8b945eb4-e2f2-11eb-945a-df72226e66a9","ec_funded":1,"ddc":["577"],"article_processing_charge":"No","file_date_updated":"2026-03-02T23:31:13Z","date_created":"2025-03-06T12:16:54Z","_id":"19302","publication_status":"published","language":[{"iso":"eng"}],"publication_identifier":{"eissn":["2663-337X"]},"department":[{"_id":"GradSch"},{"_id":"SyCr"}],"day":"24","has_accepted_license":"1","month":"02","acknowledged_ssus":[{"_id":"LifeSc"}],"date_updated":"2026-03-02T23:31:14Z","doi":"10.15479/AT-ISTA-19302","alternative_title":["ISTA Thesis"],"acknowledgement":"Thank you to the Lab Support Facility at ISTA. Thank you to the European Research Council (ERC) for their funding under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (ERC Consolidator Grant EPIDEMICSonCHIP, No. 771402, to Sylvia Cremer, and ERC Starting Grant DISEASE, No. 802628, to Nathalie Stroeymeyt).","OA_type":"closed access","author":[{"last_name":"Sartoris","first_name":"Linda","full_name":"Sartoris, Linda","id":"2B9284CA-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87"}],"citation":{"short":"L. Sartoris, The Effect of Circadian Rhythm on Organisational Immunity of Ant Colonies, Institute of Science and Technology Austria, 2025.","apa":"Sartoris, L. (2025). <i>The effect of circadian rhythm on organisational immunity of ant colonies</i>. Institute of Science and Technology Austria. <a href=\"https://doi.org/10.15479/AT-ISTA-19302\">https://doi.org/10.15479/AT-ISTA-19302</a>","ama":"Sartoris L. The effect of circadian rhythm on organisational immunity of ant colonies. 2025. doi:<a href=\"https://doi.org/10.15479/AT-ISTA-19302\">10.15479/AT-ISTA-19302</a>","chicago":"Sartoris, Linda. “The Effect of Circadian Rhythm on Organisational Immunity of Ant Colonies.” Institute of Science and Technology Austria, 2025. <a href=\"https://doi.org/10.15479/AT-ISTA-19302\">https://doi.org/10.15479/AT-ISTA-19302</a>.","ista":"Sartoris L. 2025. The effect of circadian rhythm on organisational immunity of ant colonies. Institute of Science and Technology Austria.","mla":"Sartoris, Linda. <i>The Effect of Circadian Rhythm on Organisational Immunity of Ant Colonies</i>. Institute of Science and Technology Austria, 2025, doi:<a href=\"https://doi.org/10.15479/AT-ISTA-19302\">10.15479/AT-ISTA-19302</a>.","ieee":"L. Sartoris, “The effect of circadian rhythm on organisational immunity of ant colonies,” Institute of Science and Technology Austria, 2025."},"title":"The effect of circadian rhythm on organisational immunity of ant colonies","tmp":{"short":"CC BY-NC-ND (4.0)","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)","image":"/images/cc_by_nc_nd.png"},"oa_version":"Published Version","type":"dissertation"},{"doi":"10.1073/pnas.2316284121","acknowledgement":"We thank Bernhardt Steinwender, Jorgen Eilenberg, and Nicolai V. Meyling for the fungal strains. We further thank Chengshu Wang for providing the short sequencing reads for M. guizhouense ARESF977 he used for his published genome assembly, and Kristian Ullrich for help in the bioinformatics analysis for methylation pattern in Nanopore reads, and the VBC and the Max Planck Society for the use of their sequencing centers. We thank Barbara Milutinović and Hinrich Schulenburg for discussion, and Tal Dagan and Jens Rolff for comments on a previous version of the manuscript. Fig. 1A was created with BioRender.com. This study received funding by the European Research Council under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme (No. 771402; EPIDEMICSonCHIP) to S.C. and by the German Research Foundation (DFG grant HA9263/1-1) to M.H.","OA_place":"publisher","author":[{"first_name":"Michael","full_name":"Habig, Michael","last_name":"Habig"},{"id":"406F989C-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87","last_name":"Grasse","first_name":"Anna V","full_name":"Grasse, Anna V"},{"last_name":"Müller","full_name":"Müller, Judith","first_name":"Judith"},{"last_name":"Stukenbrock","full_name":"Stukenbrock, Eva H.","first_name":"Eva H."},{"full_name":"Leitner, Hanna","first_name":"Hanna","last_name":"Leitner","id":"8fc5c6f6-5903-11ec-abad-c83f046253e7"},{"id":"2F64EC8C-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87","last_name":"Cremer","full_name":"Cremer, Sylvia","first_name":"Sylvia","orcid":"0000-0002-2193-3868"}],"OA_type":"hybrid","volume":121,"citation":{"short":"M. Habig, A.V. Grasse, J. Müller, E.H. Stukenbrock, H. Leitner, S. Cremer, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 121 (2024).","apa":"Habig, M., Grasse, A. V., Müller, J., Stukenbrock, E. H., Leitner, H., &#38; Cremer, S. (2024). Frequent horizontal chromosome transfer between asexual fungal insect pathogens. <i>Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America</i>. National Academy of Sciences. <a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2316284121\">https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2316284121</a>","chicago":"Habig, Michael, Anna V Grasse, Judith Müller, Eva H. Stukenbrock, Hanna Leitner, and Sylvia Cremer. “Frequent Horizontal Chromosome Transfer between Asexual Fungal Insect Pathogens.” <i>Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America</i>. National Academy of Sciences, 2024. <a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2316284121\">https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2316284121</a>.","ama":"Habig M, Grasse AV, Müller J, Stukenbrock EH, Leitner H, Cremer S. Frequent horizontal chromosome transfer between asexual fungal insect pathogens. <i>Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America</i>. 2024;121(11). doi:<a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2316284121\">10.1073/pnas.2316284121</a>","ista":"Habig M, Grasse AV, Müller J, Stukenbrock EH, Leitner H, Cremer S. 2024. Frequent horizontal chromosome transfer between asexual fungal insect pathogens. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 121(11), e2316284121.","ieee":"M. Habig, A. V. Grasse, J. Müller, E. H. Stukenbrock, H. Leitner, and S. Cremer, “Frequent horizontal chromosome transfer between asexual fungal insect pathogens,” <i>Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America</i>, vol. 121, no. 11. National Academy of Sciences, 2024.","mla":"Habig, Michael, et al. “Frequent Horizontal Chromosome Transfer between Asexual Fungal Insect Pathogens.” <i>Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America</i>, vol. 121, no. 11, e2316284121, National Academy of Sciences, 2024, doi:<a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2316284121\">10.1073/pnas.2316284121</a>."},"title":"Frequent horizontal chromosome transfer between asexual fungal insect pathogens","tmp":{"short":"CC BY-NC-ND (4.0)","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)","image":"/images/cc_by_nc_nd.png"},"isi":1,"oa_version":"Published Version","type":"journal_article","_id":"14478","publication_status":"published","language":[{"iso":"eng"}],"publication_identifier":{"eissn":["1091-6490"],"issn":["0027-8424"]},"department":[{"_id":"SyCr"}],"day":"12","has_accepted_license":"1","article_number":"e2316284121","month":"03","article_type":"original","publication":"Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America","date_updated":"2025-08-05T13:30:51Z","publisher":"National Academy of Sciences","file":[{"relation":"main_file","access_level":"open_access","success":1,"checksum":"f5e871db617b682edc71fcd08670dc81","file_id":"15124","content_type":"application/pdf","file_size":5750361,"date_updated":"2024-03-19T09:02:57Z","date_created":"2024-03-19T09:02:57Z","file_name":"2024_PNAS_Habig.pdf","creator":"dernst"}],"quality_controlled":"1","oa":1,"external_id":{"pmid":["38442176"],"isi":["001207630200005"]},"scopus_import":"1","user_id":"2DF688A6-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87","ec_funded":1,"date_published":"2024-03-12T00:00:00Z","ddc":["570"],"pmid":1,"file_date_updated":"2024-03-19T09:02:57Z","article_processing_charge":"Yes (in subscription journal)","date_created":"2023-10-31T13:30:00Z","project":[{"name":"Epidemics in ant societies on a chip","_id":"2649B4DE-B435-11E9-9278-68D0E5697425","call_identifier":"H2020","grant_number":"771402"}],"status":"public","APC_amount":"3040,36 EUR","corr_author":"1","intvolume":"       121","year":"2024","abstract":[{"lang":"eng","text":"Entire chromosomes are typically only transmitted vertically from one generation to the next. The horizontal transfer of such chromosomes has long been considered improbable, yet gained recent support in several pathogenic fungi where it may affect the fitness or host specificity. To date, it is unknown how these transfers occur, how common they are and whether they can occur between different species. In this study, we show multiple independent instances of horizontal transfers of the same accessory chromosome between two distinct strains of the asexual entomopathogenic fungus<jats:italic>Metarhizium robertsii</jats:italic>during experimental co-infection of its insect host, the Argentine ant. Notably, only the one chromosome – but no other – was transferred from the donor to the recipient strain. The recipient strain, now harboring the accessory chromosome, exhibited a competitive advantage under certain host conditions. By phylogenetic analysis we further demonstrate that the same accessory chromosome was horizontally transferred in a natural environment between<jats:italic>M. robertsii</jats:italic>and another congeneric insect pathogen,<jats:italic>M. guizhouense</jats:italic>. Hence horizontal chromosome transfer is not limited to the observed frequent events within species during experimental infections but also occurs naturally across species. The transferred accessory chromosome contains genes that might be involved in its preferential horizontal transfer, encoding putative histones and histone-modifying enzymes, but also putative virulence factors that may support its establishment. Our study reveals that both intra- and interspecies horizontal transfer of entire chromosomes is more frequent than previously assumed, likely representing a not uncommon mechanism for gene exchange.</jats:p><jats:sec><jats:title>Significance Statement</jats:title><jats:p>The enormous success of bacterial pathogens has been attributed to their ability to exchange genetic material between one another. Similarly, in eukaryotes, horizontal transfer of genetic material allowed the spread of virulence factors across species. The horizontal transfer of whole chromosomes could be an important pathway for such exchange of genetic material, but little is known about the origin of transferable chromosomes and how frequently they are exchanged. Here, we show that the transfer of accessory chromosomes - chromosomes that are non-essential but may provide fitness benefits - is common during fungal co-infections and is even possible between distant pathogenic species, highlighting the importance of horizontal gene transfer via chromosome transfer also for the evolution and function of eukaryotic pathogens."}],"issue":"11"},{"day":"01","department":[{"_id":"SyCr"},{"_id":"LifeSc"},{"_id":"JiFr"}],"publication_identifier":{"eissn":["2397-334X"]},"language":[{"iso":"eng"}],"publication_status":"published","_id":"12543","related_material":{"link":[{"relation":"press_release","url":"https://ista.ac.at/en/news/how-sneaky-germs-hide-from-ants/","description":"News on ISTA website"}]},"has_accepted_license":"1","article_type":"original","month":"03","date_updated":"2025-04-14T07:47:53Z","acknowledged_ssus":[{"_id":"LifeSc"}],"publication":"Nature Ecology and Evolution","acknowledgement":"We thank B. M. Steinwender, N. V. Meyling and J. Eilenberg for the fungal strains; J. Anaya-Rojas for statistical advice; the Social Immunity team at ISTA for ant collection and experimental help, in particular H. Leitner, and the ISTA Lab Support Facility for general laboratory support; D. Ebert, H. Schulenburg and J. Heinze for continued project discussion; and M. Sixt, R. Roemhild and the Social Immunity team for comments on the manuscript. The study was funded by the German Research Foundation (CR118/3-1) within the Framework of the Priority Program SPP 1399, and the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme (No. 771402; EPIDEMICSonCHIP), both to S.C.","doi":"10.1038/s41559-023-01981-6","author":[{"id":"42462816-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87","last_name":"Stock","first_name":"Miriam","full_name":"Stock, Miriam"},{"orcid":"0000-0002-8214-4758","first_name":"Barbara","full_name":"Milutinovic, Barbara","last_name":"Milutinovic","id":"2CDC32B8-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87"},{"id":"953894f3-25bd-11ec-8556-f70a9d38ef60","last_name":"Hönigsberger","first_name":"Michaela","full_name":"Hönigsberger, Michaela"},{"id":"406F989C-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87","last_name":"Grasse","first_name":"Anna V","full_name":"Grasse, Anna V"},{"first_name":"Florian","full_name":"Wiesenhofer, Florian","last_name":"Wiesenhofer","id":"39523C54-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87"},{"first_name":"Niklas","full_name":"Kampleitner, Niklas","last_name":"Kampleitner","id":"2AC57FAC-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87"},{"orcid":"0000-0002-8600-0671","id":"44BF24D0-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87","last_name":"Narasimhan","first_name":"Madhumitha","full_name":"Narasimhan, Madhumitha"},{"last_name":"Schmitt","full_name":"Schmitt, Thomas","first_name":"Thomas"},{"id":"2F64EC8C-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87","first_name":"Sylvia","full_name":"Cremer, Sylvia","last_name":"Cremer","orcid":"0000-0002-2193-3868"}],"title":"Pathogen evasion of social immunity","volume":7,"citation":{"mla":"Stock, Miriam, et al. “Pathogen Evasion of Social Immunity.” <i>Nature Ecology and Evolution</i>, vol. 7, Springer Nature, 2023, pp. 450–60, doi:<a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-023-01981-6\">10.1038/s41559-023-01981-6</a>.","ieee":"M. Stock <i>et al.</i>, “Pathogen evasion of social immunity,” <i>Nature Ecology and Evolution</i>, vol. 7. Springer Nature, pp. 450–460, 2023.","ista":"Stock M, Milutinovic B, Hönigsberger M, Grasse AV, Wiesenhofer F, Kampleitner N, Narasimhan M, Schmitt T, Cremer S. 2023. Pathogen evasion of social immunity. Nature Ecology and Evolution. 7, 450–460.","chicago":"Stock, Miriam, Barbara Milutinovic, Michaela Hönigsberger, Anna V Grasse, Florian Wiesenhofer, Niklas Kampleitner, Madhumitha Narasimhan, Thomas Schmitt, and Sylvia Cremer. “Pathogen Evasion of Social Immunity.” <i>Nature Ecology and Evolution</i>. Springer Nature, 2023. <a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-023-01981-6\">https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-023-01981-6</a>.","ama":"Stock M, Milutinovic B, Hönigsberger M, et al. Pathogen evasion of social immunity. <i>Nature Ecology and Evolution</i>. 2023;7:450-460. doi:<a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-023-01981-6\">10.1038/s41559-023-01981-6</a>","apa":"Stock, M., Milutinovic, B., Hönigsberger, M., Grasse, A. V., Wiesenhofer, F., Kampleitner, N., … Cremer, S. (2023). Pathogen evasion of social immunity. <i>Nature Ecology and Evolution</i>. Springer Nature. <a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-023-01981-6\">https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-023-01981-6</a>","short":"M. Stock, B. Milutinovic, M. Hönigsberger, A.V. Grasse, F. Wiesenhofer, N. Kampleitner, M. Narasimhan, T. Schmitt, S. Cremer, Nature Ecology and Evolution 7 (2023) 450–460."},"tmp":{"image":"/images/cc_by.png","name":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0)","short":"CC BY (4.0)","legal_code_url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode"},"isi":1,"oa_version":"Published Version","type":"journal_article","status":"public","project":[{"call_identifier":"H2020","grant_number":"771402","name":"Epidemics in ant societies on a chip","_id":"2649B4DE-B435-11E9-9278-68D0E5697425"},{"grant_number":"CR-118/3-1","_id":"25DAF0B2-B435-11E9-9278-68D0E5697425","name":"Host-Parasite Coevolution"}],"intvolume":"         7","page":"450-460","corr_author":"1","year":"2023","abstract":[{"lang":"eng","text":"Treating sick group members is a hallmark of collective disease defence in vertebrates and invertebrates alike. Despite substantial effects on pathogen fitness and epidemiology, it is still largely unknown how pathogens react to the selection pressure imposed by care intervention. Using social insects and pathogenic fungi, we here performed a serial passage experiment in the presence or absence of colony members, which provide social immunity by grooming off infectious spores from exposed individuals. We found specific effects on pathogen diversity, virulence and transmission. Under selection of social immunity, pathogens invested into higher spore production, but spores were less virulent. Notably, they also elicited a lower grooming response in colony members, compared with spores from the individual host selection lines. Chemical spore analysis suggested that the spores from social selection lines escaped the caregivers’ detection by containing lower levels of ergosterol, a key fungal membrane component. Experimental application of chemically pure ergosterol indeed induced sanitary grooming, supporting its role as a microbe-associated cue triggering host social immunity against fungal pathogens. By reducing this detection cue, pathogens were able to evade the otherwise very effective collective disease defences of their social hosts."}],"external_id":{"isi":["000924572800001"],"pmid":["36732670"]},"oa":1,"quality_controlled":"1","file":[{"checksum":"8244f4650a0e7aeea488d1bcd4a31702","content_type":"application/pdf","file_id":"14069","relation":"main_file","access_level":"open_access","success":1,"file_name":"2023_NatureEcoEvo_Stock.pdf","creator":"dernst","file_size":1600499,"date_created":"2023-08-16T11:54:59Z","date_updated":"2023-08-16T11:54:59Z"}],"publisher":"Springer Nature","ddc":["570"],"pmid":1,"user_id":"2DF688A6-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87","scopus_import":"1","ec_funded":1,"date_published":"2023-03-01T00:00:00Z","date_created":"2023-02-12T23:00:59Z","file_date_updated":"2023-08-16T11:54:59Z","article_processing_charge":"No"},{"abstract":[{"text":"Background: Fighting disease while fighting rivals exposes males to constraints and tradeoffs during male-male competition. We here tested how both the stage and intensity of infection with the fungal pathogen Metarhizium robertsii interfered with fighting success in Cardiocondyla obscurior ant males. Males of this species have evolved long lifespans during which they can gain many matings with the young queens of the colony, if successful in male-male competition. Since male fights occur inside the colony, the outcome of male-male competition can further be biased by interference of the colony’s worker force.\r\nResults: We found that severe, but not yet mild, infection strongly impaired male fighting success. In late-stage infection, this could be attributed to worker aggression directed towards the infected rather than the healthy male and an already very high male morbidity even in the absence of fighting. Shortly after pathogen exposure, however, male mortality was particularly increased during combat. Since these males mounted a strong immune response, their reduced fighting success suggests a trade-off between immune investment and competitive ability already early in the infection. Even if the males themselves showed no difference in the number of attacks they raised against their healthy rivals across infection stages and levels, severely infected males were thus losing in male-male competition from an early stage of infection on.\r\nConclusions: Males of the ant C. obscurior have evolved high immune investment, triggering an effective immune response very fast after fungal exposure. This allows them to cope with mild pathogen exposures without cost to their success in male-male competition, and hence to gain multiple mating opportunities with the emerging virgin queens of the colony. Under severe infection, however, they are weak fighters and rarely survive a combat already at early infection when raising an immune response, as well as at progressed infection, when they are morbid and preferentially targeted by worker aggression. Workers thereby remove males that pose a future disease threat by biasing male-male competition. Our study thus revealed a novel social immunity mechanism how social insect workers protect the colony against disease risk.","lang":"eng"}],"year":"2023","corr_author":"1","intvolume":"        23","project":[{"grant_number":"771402","call_identifier":"H2020","name":"Epidemics in ant societies on a chip","_id":"2649B4DE-B435-11E9-9278-68D0E5697425"}],"status":"public","date_created":"2023-02-28T07:38:17Z","article_processing_charge":"Yes","file_date_updated":"2023-08-14T07:51:47Z","ddc":["570"],"pmid":1,"user_id":"2DF688A6-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87","scopus_import":"1","date_published":"2023-08-07T00:00:00Z","ec_funded":1,"file":[{"success":1,"relation":"main_file","access_level":"open_access","content_type":"application/pdf","file_id":"14048","checksum":"95966dc7d242d2c85bdd4fe14233dbd8","date_updated":"2023-08-14T07:51:47Z","date_created":"2023-08-14T07:51:47Z","file_size":2004276,"creator":"dernst","file_name":"2023_BMCEcology_Metzler.pdf"}],"publisher":"Springer Nature","external_id":{"pmid":["37550612"],"isi":["001042643600002"]},"oa":1,"quality_controlled":"1","publication":"BMC Ecology and Evolution","date_updated":"2025-04-14T07:47:53Z","acknowledged_ssus":[{"_id":"LifeSc"}],"month":"08","article_type":"original","has_accepted_license":"1","related_material":{"record":[{"relation":"research_data","id":"12693","status":"public"}]},"article_number":"37","language":[{"iso":"eng"}],"publication_status":"published","_id":"12696","department":[{"_id":"SyCr"}],"day":"07","publication_identifier":{"issn":["2730-7182"]},"tmp":{"image":"/images/cc_by.png","name":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0)","short":"CC BY (4.0)","legal_code_url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode"},"oa_version":"Published Version","isi":1,"type":"journal_article","volume":23,"citation":{"ista":"Metzler S, Kirchner J, Grasse AV, Cremer S. 2023. Trade-offs between immunity and competitive ability in fighting ant males. BMC Ecology and Evolution. 23, 37.","mla":"Metzler, Sina, et al. “Trade-Offs between Immunity and Competitive Ability in Fighting Ant Males.” <i>BMC Ecology and Evolution</i>, vol. 23, 37, Springer Nature, 2023, doi:<a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1186/s12862-023-02137-7\">10.1186/s12862-023-02137-7</a>.","ieee":"S. Metzler, J. Kirchner, A. V. Grasse, and S. Cremer, “Trade-offs between immunity and competitive ability in fighting ant males,” <i>BMC Ecology and Evolution</i>, vol. 23. Springer Nature, 2023.","apa":"Metzler, S., Kirchner, J., Grasse, A. V., &#38; Cremer, S. (2023). Trade-offs between immunity and competitive ability in fighting ant males. <i>BMC Ecology and Evolution</i>. Springer Nature. <a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1186/s12862-023-02137-7\">https://doi.org/10.1186/s12862-023-02137-7</a>","chicago":"Metzler, Sina, Jessica Kirchner, Anna V Grasse, and Sylvia Cremer. “Trade-Offs between Immunity and Competitive Ability in Fighting Ant Males.” <i>BMC Ecology and Evolution</i>. Springer Nature, 2023. <a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1186/s12862-023-02137-7\">https://doi.org/10.1186/s12862-023-02137-7</a>.","ama":"Metzler S, Kirchner J, Grasse AV, Cremer S. Trade-offs between immunity and competitive ability in fighting ant males. <i>BMC Ecology and Evolution</i>. 2023;23. doi:<a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1186/s12862-023-02137-7\">10.1186/s12862-023-02137-7</a>","short":"S. Metzler, J. Kirchner, A.V. Grasse, S. Cremer, BMC Ecology and Evolution 23 (2023)."},"title":"Trade-offs between immunity and competitive ability in fighting ant males","author":[{"orcid":"0000-0002-9547-2494","last_name":"Metzler","full_name":"Metzler, Sina","first_name":"Sina","id":"48204546-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87"},{"last_name":"Kirchner","full_name":"Kirchner, Jessica","first_name":"Jessica","id":"21516227-15aa-11ec-9fb2-c6e8ffc155d3"},{"id":"406F989C-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87","first_name":"Anna V","full_name":"Grasse, Anna V","last_name":"Grasse"},{"orcid":"0000-0002-2193-3868","last_name":"Cremer","full_name":"Cremer, Sylvia","first_name":"Sylvia","id":"2F64EC8C-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87"}],"doi":"10.1186/s12862-023-02137-7","acknowledgement":"We are thankful to Mike Bidochka for the fungal strain, Lukas Schrader for sharing the C. obscurior genome data for primer development, the Lab Support Facility of ISTA for general laboratory support and help with the permit approval procedures, and the Finca El Quinto for letting us collect ants on their property. We thank the Social Immunity Team at ISTA for help with ant collection and experimental help, in particular Elina Hanhimäki and Marta Gorecka for behavioural observation, and Elisabeth Naderlinger for spore load PCRs. We further thank the Social Immunity Team and Jürgen Heinze for continued discussion and comments on the manuscript.\r\nOpen access funding provided by Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA). This project received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No 771402 to SC). "},{"file":[{"file_name":"2023_NatureComm_CasillasPerez.pdf","creator":"dernst","date_updated":"2023-06-13T08:05:46Z","date_created":"2023-06-13T08:05:46Z","file_size":2358167,"file_id":"13132","content_type":"application/pdf","checksum":"4af0393e3ed47b3fc46e68b81c3c1007","success":1,"access_level":"open_access","relation":"main_file"}],"publisher":"Springer Nature","external_id":{"isi":["001002562700005"],"pmid":["37270641"]},"oa":1,"quality_controlled":"1","date_created":"2023-06-11T22:00:40Z","file_date_updated":"2023-06-13T08:05:46Z","article_processing_charge":"Yes","pmid":1,"ddc":["570"],"date_published":"2023-06-03T00:00:00Z","user_id":"2DF688A6-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87","scopus_import":"1","ec_funded":1,"corr_author":"1","intvolume":"        14","project":[{"_id":"2649B4DE-B435-11E9-9278-68D0E5697425","name":"Epidemics in ant societies on a chip","grant_number":"771402","call_identifier":"H2020"},{"name":"Information processing and computation in fish groups","_id":"255008E4-B435-11E9-9278-68D0E5697425","grant_number":"RGP0065/2012"}],"status":"public","abstract":[{"lang":"eng","text":"Cooperative disease defense emerges as group-level collective behavior, yet how group members make the underlying individual decisions is poorly understood. Using garden ants and fungal pathogens as an experimental model, we derive the rules governing individual ant grooming choices and show how they produce colony-level hygiene. Time-resolved behavioral analysis, pathogen quantification, and probabilistic modeling reveal that ants increase grooming and preferentially target highly-infectious individuals when perceiving high pathogen load, but transiently suppress grooming after having been groomed by nestmates. Ants thus react to both, the infectivity of others and the social feedback they receive on their own contagiousness. While inferred solely from momentary ant decisions, these behavioral rules quantitatively predict hour-long experimental dynamics, and synergistically combine into efficient colony-wide pathogen removal. Our analyses show that noisy individual decisions based on only local, incomplete, yet dynamically-updated information on pathogen threat and social feedback can lead to potent collective disease defense."}],"year":"2023","author":[{"last_name":"Casillas Perez","first_name":"Barbara E","full_name":"Casillas Perez, Barbara E","id":"351ED2AA-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87"},{"orcid":"0000-0002-7214-0171","first_name":"Katarína","full_name":"Bod'Ová, Katarína","last_name":"Bod'Ová","id":"2BA24EA0-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87"},{"id":"406F989C-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87","last_name":"Grasse","full_name":"Grasse, Anna V","first_name":"Anna V"},{"full_name":"Tkačik, Gašper","first_name":"Gašper","last_name":"Tkačik","id":"3D494DCA-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87","orcid":"0000-0002-6699-1455"},{"last_name":"Cremer","first_name":"Sylvia","full_name":"Cremer, Sylvia","id":"2F64EC8C-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87","orcid":"0000-0002-2193-3868"}],"doi":"10.1038/s41467-023-38947-y","acknowledgement":"We thank Mike Bidochka for the fungal strains, the ISTA Social Immunity Team for ant collection, Hanna Leitner for experimental and molecular support, Jennifer Robb and Lukas Lindorfer for microscopy, and the LabSupport Facility at ISTA for general laboratory support. We further thank Victor Mireles, Iain Couzin, Fabian Theis and the Social Immunity Team for continued feedback throughout, and Michael Sixt, Yuko Ulrich, Koos Boomsma, Erika Dawson, Megan Kutzer and Hinrich Schulenburg for comments on the manuscript. This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (Grant No. 771402; EPIDEMICSonCHIP) to SC, from the Scientific Grant Agency of the Slovak Republic (Grant No. 1/0521/20) to KB, and the Human Frontier Science Program (Grant No. RGP0065/2012) to GT.","oa_version":"Published Version","tmp":{"image":"/images/cc_by.png","name":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0)","short":"CC BY (4.0)","legal_code_url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode"},"isi":1,"type":"journal_article","volume":14,"citation":{"short":"B.E. Casillas Perez, K. Bodova, A.V. Grasse, G. Tkačik, S. Cremer, Nature Communications 14 (2023).","apa":"Casillas Perez, B. E., Bodova, K., Grasse, A. V., Tkačik, G., &#38; Cremer, S. (2023). Dynamic pathogen detection and social feedback shape collective hygiene in ants. <i>Nature Communications</i>. Springer Nature. <a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-38947-y\">https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-38947-y</a>","ama":"Casillas Perez BE, Bodova K, Grasse AV, Tkačik G, Cremer S. Dynamic pathogen detection and social feedback shape collective hygiene in ants. <i>Nature Communications</i>. 2023;14. doi:<a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-38947-y\">10.1038/s41467-023-38947-y</a>","chicago":"Casillas Perez, Barbara E, Katarina Bodova, Anna V Grasse, Gašper Tkačik, and Sylvia Cremer. “Dynamic Pathogen Detection and Social Feedback Shape Collective Hygiene in Ants.” <i>Nature Communications</i>. Springer Nature, 2023. <a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-38947-y\">https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-38947-y</a>.","ista":"Casillas Perez BE, Bodova K, Grasse AV, Tkačik G, Cremer S. 2023. Dynamic pathogen detection and social feedback shape collective hygiene in ants. Nature Communications. 14, 3232.","mla":"Casillas Perez, Barbara E., et al. “Dynamic Pathogen Detection and Social Feedback Shape Collective Hygiene in Ants.” <i>Nature Communications</i>, vol. 14, 3232, Springer Nature, 2023, doi:<a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-38947-y\">10.1038/s41467-023-38947-y</a>.","ieee":"B. E. Casillas Perez, K. Bodova, A. V. Grasse, G. Tkačik, and S. Cremer, “Dynamic pathogen detection and social feedback shape collective hygiene in ants,” <i>Nature Communications</i>, vol. 14. Springer Nature, 2023."},"title":"Dynamic pathogen detection and social feedback shape collective hygiene in ants","has_accepted_license":"1","related_material":{"record":[{"status":"public","id":"12945","relation":"research_data"}]},"article_number":"3232","language":[{"iso":"eng"}],"_id":"13127","publication_status":"published","department":[{"_id":"SyCr"},{"_id":"GaTk"}],"day":"03","publication_identifier":{"eissn":["2041-1723"]},"publication":"Nature Communications","date_updated":"2025-04-14T07:47:53Z","acknowledged_ssus":[{"_id":"LifeSc"}],"month":"06","article_type":"original"},{"year":"2022","abstract":[{"text":"Infections early in life can have enduring effects on an organism's development and immunity. In this study, we show that this equally applies to developing ‘superorganisms’––incipient social insect colonies. When we exposed newly mated Lasius niger ant queens to a low pathogen dose, their colonies grew more slowly than controls before winter, but reached similar sizes afterwards. Independent of exposure, queen hibernation survival improved when the ratio of pupae to workers was small. Queens that reared fewer pupae before worker emergence exhibited lower pathogen levels, indicating that high brood rearing efforts interfere with the ability of the queen's immune system to suppress pathogen proliferation. Early-life queen pathogen exposure also improved the immunocompetence of her worker offspring, as demonstrated by challenging the workers to the same pathogen a year later. Transgenerational transfer of the queen's pathogen experience to her workforce can hence durably reduce the disease susceptibility of the whole superorganism.","lang":"eng"}],"issue":"1","project":[{"name":"Epidemics in ant societies on a chip","_id":"2649B4DE-B435-11E9-9278-68D0E5697425","call_identifier":"H2020","grant_number":"771402"}],"status":"public","page":"89-100","corr_author":"1","intvolume":"        25","ddc":["573"],"pmid":1,"ec_funded":1,"scopus_import":"1","date_published":"2022-01-01T00:00:00Z","user_id":"4359f0d1-fa6c-11eb-b949-802e58b17ae8","date_created":"2021-11-14T23:01:25Z","file_date_updated":"2022-02-03T13:37:11Z","article_processing_charge":"Yes (via OA deal)","file":[{"access_level":"open_access","relation":"main_file","success":1,"checksum":"0bd4210400e9876609b7c538ab4f9a3c","content_type":"application/pdf","file_id":"10721","file_size":700087,"date_created":"2022-02-03T13:37:11Z","date_updated":"2022-02-03T13:37:11Z","creator":"cchlebak","file_name":"2021_EcologyLetters_CasillasPerez.pdf"}],"publisher":"Wiley","external_id":{"pmid":["34725912"],"isi":["000713396100001"]},"oa":1,"quality_controlled":"1","month":"01","article_type":"original","publication":"Ecology Letters","date_updated":"2025-04-14T13:55:31Z","acknowledged_ssus":[{"_id":"ScienComp"}],"language":[{"iso":"eng"}],"_id":"10284","publication_status":"published","day":"01","department":[{"_id":"SyCr"}],"publication_identifier":{"eissn":["1461-0248"],"issn":["1461-023X"]},"has_accepted_license":"1","related_material":{"record":[{"id":"13061","status":"public","relation":"research_data"}]},"volume":25,"citation":{"apa":"Casillas Perez, B. E., Pull, C., Naiser, F., Naderlinger, E., Matas, J., &#38; Cremer, S. (2022). Early queen infection shapes developmental dynamics and induces long-term disease protection in incipient ant colonies. <i>Ecology Letters</i>. Wiley. <a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13907\">https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13907</a>","chicago":"Casillas Perez, Barbara E, Christopher Pull, Filip Naiser, Elisabeth Naderlinger, Jiri Matas, and Sylvia Cremer. “Early Queen Infection Shapes Developmental Dynamics and Induces Long-Term Disease Protection in Incipient Ant Colonies.” <i>Ecology Letters</i>. Wiley, 2022. <a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13907\">https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13907</a>.","ama":"Casillas Perez BE, Pull C, Naiser F, Naderlinger E, Matas J, Cremer S. Early queen infection shapes developmental dynamics and induces long-term disease protection in incipient ant colonies. <i>Ecology Letters</i>. 2022;25(1):89-100. doi:<a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13907\">10.1111/ele.13907</a>","short":"B.E. Casillas Perez, C. Pull, F. Naiser, E. Naderlinger, J. Matas, S. Cremer, Ecology Letters 25 (2022) 89–100.","ista":"Casillas Perez BE, Pull C, Naiser F, Naderlinger E, Matas J, Cremer S. 2022. Early queen infection shapes developmental dynamics and induces long-term disease protection in incipient ant colonies. Ecology Letters. 25(1), 89–100.","ieee":"B. E. Casillas Perez, C. Pull, F. Naiser, E. Naderlinger, J. Matas, and S. Cremer, “Early queen infection shapes developmental dynamics and induces long-term disease protection in incipient ant colonies,” <i>Ecology Letters</i>, vol. 25, no. 1. Wiley, pp. 89–100, 2022.","mla":"Casillas Perez, Barbara E., et al. “Early Queen Infection Shapes Developmental Dynamics and Induces Long-Term Disease Protection in Incipient Ant Colonies.” <i>Ecology Letters</i>, vol. 25, no. 1, Wiley, 2022, pp. 89–100, doi:<a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13907\">10.1111/ele.13907</a>."},"title":"Early queen infection shapes developmental dynamics and induces long-term disease protection in incipient ant colonies","isi":1,"tmp":{"image":"/images/cc_by.png","name":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0)","short":"CC BY (4.0)","legal_code_url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode"},"type":"journal_article","oa_version":"Published Version","doi":"10.1111/ele.13907","acknowledgement":"The authors are grateful to G. Tkačik and V. Mireles for advice on data analyses and to A. Schloegl for help using the IST Austria HPC cluster for data processing. The authors thank J. Eilenberg for providing the fungal strain and A.V. Grasse for support with the molecular analysis. The authors also thank the Social Immunity group at IST Austria, in particular B. Milutinović, for discussions throughout and comments on the manuscript.","author":[{"id":"351ED2AA-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87","last_name":"Casillas Perez","first_name":"Barbara E","full_name":"Casillas Perez, Barbara E"},{"orcid":"0000-0003-1122-3982","last_name":"Pull","first_name":"Christopher","full_name":"Pull, Christopher","id":"3C7F4840-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87"},{"last_name":"Naiser","first_name":"Filip","full_name":"Naiser, Filip"},{"first_name":"Elisabeth","full_name":"Naderlinger, Elisabeth","last_name":"Naderlinger","id":"31757262-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87"},{"first_name":"Jiri","full_name":"Matas, Jiri","last_name":"Matas"},{"first_name":"Sylvia","full_name":"Cremer, Sylvia","last_name":"Cremer","id":"2F64EC8C-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87","orcid":"0000-0002-2193-3868"}]},{"date_created":"2022-02-04T15:45:12Z","article_processing_charge":"No","file_date_updated":"2023-02-04T23:30:03Z","ddc":["570"],"user_id":"ba8df636-2132-11f1-aed0-ed93e2281fdd","date_published":"2022-02-07T00:00:00Z","ec_funded":1,"file":[{"creator":"smetzler","embargo_to":"open_access","file_name":"Thesis_Sina_Metzler.docx","date_created":"2022-02-04T15:36:12Z","date_updated":"2023-02-03T23:30:03Z","file_size":6757886,"file_id":"10728","content_type":"application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document","checksum":"47ba18bb270dd6cc266e0a3f7c69d0e4","relation":"source_file","access_level":"closed"},{"access_level":"open_access","relation":"main_file","checksum":"f3ec07d5d6b20ae6e46bfeedebce9027","file_id":"10730","content_type":"application/pdf","file_size":6314921,"date_updated":"2023-02-03T23:30:03Z","date_created":"2022-02-04T15:36:43Z","embargo":"2023-02-02","file_name":"Thesis_Sina_Metzler_A2.pdf","creator":"smetzler"},{"access_level":"open_access","relation":"main_file","checksum":"dedd14b7be7a75d63018dbfc68dd8113","file_id":"10742","content_type":"application/pdf","file_size":6882557,"date_created":"2022-02-07T10:35:02Z","date_updated":"2023-02-04T23:30:03Z","embargo":"2023-02-02","creator":"smetzler","file_name":"Thesis_Sina_Metzler_print.pdf"}],"publisher":"Institute of Science and Technology Austria","oa":1,"abstract":[{"text":"Social insects are a common model to study disease dynamics in social animals. Even though pathogens should thrive in social insect colonies as the hosts engage in frequent social interactions, are closely related and live in a pathogen-rich environment, disease outbreaks are rare. This is because social insects have evolved mechanisms to keep pathogens at bay – and fight disease as a collective. Social insect colonies are often viewed as “superorganisms” with division of labor between reproductive “germ-like” queens and males and “somatic” workers, which together form an interdependent reproductive unit that parallels a multicellular body. Superorganisms possess a “social immune system” that comprises of collective disease defenses performed by the workers - summarized as “social immunity”. In social groups immunization (reduced susceptibility to a parasite upon secondary exposure to the same parasite) can e.g. be triggered by social interactions (“social immunization”). Social immunization can be caused by (i) asymptomatic low-level infections that are acquired during caregiving to a contagious individual that can give an immune boost, which can induce protection upon later encounter with the same pathogen (active immunization) or (ii) by transfer of immune effectors between individuals (passive immunization).\r\nIn the second chapter, I built up on a study that I co-authored that found that low-level infections can not only be protective, but also be costly and make the host more susceptible to detrimental superinfections after contact to a very dissimilar pathogen. I here now tested different degrees of phylogenetically-distant fungal strains of M. brunneum and M. robertsii in L. neglectus and can describe the occurrence of cross-protection of social immunization if the first and second pathogen are from the same level. Interestingly, low-level infections only provided protection when the first strain was less virulent than the second strain and elicited higher immune gene expression.\r\nIn the third and fourth chapters, I expanded on the role of social immunity in sexual selection, a so far unstudied field. I used the fungus Metarhizium robertsii and the ant Cardiocondyla obscurior as a model, as in this species mating occurs in the presence of workers and can be studied under laboratory conditions. Before males mate with virgin queens in the nest they engage in fierce combat over the access to their mating partners.\r\nFirst, I focused on male-male competition in the third chapter and found that fighting with a contagious male is costly as it can lead to contamination of the rival, but that workers can decrease the risk of disease contraction by performing sanitary care.\r\nIn the fourth chapter, I studied the effect of fungal infection on survival and mating success of sexuals (freshly emerged queens and males) and found that worker-performed sanitary care can buffer the negative effect that a pathogenic contagion would have on sexuals by spore removal from the exposed individuals. When social immunity was prevented and queens could contract spores from their mating partner, very low dosages led to negative consequences: their lifespan was reduced and they produced fewer offspring with poor immunocompetence compared to healthy queens. Interestingly, cohabitation with a late-stage infected male where no spore transfer was possible had a positive effect on offspring immunity – male offspring of mothers that apparently perceived an infected partner in their vicinity reacted more sensitively to fungal challenge than male offspring without paternal pathogen history.","lang":"eng"}],"degree_awarded":"PhD","year":"2022","corr_author":"1","project":[{"call_identifier":"H2020","grant_number":"771402","_id":"2649B4DE-B435-11E9-9278-68D0E5697425","name":"Epidemics in ant societies on a chip"}],"supervisor":[{"orcid":"0000-0002-2193-3868","first_name":"Sylvia","full_name":"Cremer, Sylvia","last_name":"Cremer","id":"2F64EC8C-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87"}],"status":"public","type":"dissertation","oa_version":"Published Version","citation":{"ista":"Metzler S. 2022. Pathogen-mediated sexual selection and immunization in ant colonies. Institute of Science and Technology Austria.","mla":"Metzler, Sina. <i>Pathogen-Mediated Sexual Selection and Immunization in Ant Colonies</i>. Institute of Science and Technology Austria, 2022, doi:<a href=\"https://doi.org/10.15479/AT:ISTA:10727\">10.15479/AT:ISTA:10727</a>.","ieee":"S. Metzler, “Pathogen-mediated sexual selection and immunization in ant colonies,” Institute of Science and Technology Austria, 2022.","short":"S. Metzler, Pathogen-Mediated Sexual Selection and Immunization in Ant Colonies, Institute of Science and Technology Austria, 2022.","apa":"Metzler, S. (2022). <i>Pathogen-mediated sexual selection and immunization in ant colonies</i>. Institute of Science and Technology Austria. <a href=\"https://doi.org/10.15479/AT:ISTA:10727\">https://doi.org/10.15479/AT:ISTA:10727</a>","chicago":"Metzler, Sina. “Pathogen-Mediated Sexual Selection and Immunization in Ant Colonies.” Institute of Science and Technology Austria, 2022. <a href=\"https://doi.org/10.15479/AT:ISTA:10727\">https://doi.org/10.15479/AT:ISTA:10727</a>.","ama":"Metzler S. Pathogen-mediated sexual selection and immunization in ant colonies. 2022. doi:<a href=\"https://doi.org/10.15479/AT:ISTA:10727\">10.15479/AT:ISTA:10727</a>"},"title":"Pathogen-mediated sexual selection and immunization in ant colonies","author":[{"id":"48204546-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87","first_name":"Sina","full_name":"Metzler, Sina","last_name":"Metzler","orcid":"0000-0002-9547-2494"}],"OA_place":"publisher","doi":"10.15479/AT:ISTA:10727","alternative_title":["ISTA Thesis"],"date_updated":"2026-04-07T14:30:18Z","acknowledged_ssus":[{"_id":"LifeSc"}],"month":"02","has_accepted_license":"1","language":[{"iso":"eng"}],"_id":"10727","publication_status":"published","day":"07","department":[{"_id":"GradSch"},{"_id":"SyCr"}],"publication_identifier":{"issn":["2663-337X"]}},{"oa_version":"Published Version","tmp":{"name":"Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication (CC0 1.0)","short":"CC0 (1.0)","legal_code_url":"https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/legalcode","image":"/images/cc_0.png"},"type":"research_data_reference","date_created":"2023-05-23T16:14:35Z","article_processing_charge":"No","citation":{"ista":"Casillas Perez BE, Pull C, Naiser F, Naderlinger E, Matas J, Cremer S. 2021. Early queen infection shapes developmental dynamics and induces long-term disease protection in incipient ant colonies, Dryad, <a href=\"https://doi.org/10.5061/DRYAD.7PVMCVDTJ\">10.5061/DRYAD.7PVMCVDTJ</a>.","mla":"Casillas Perez, Barbara E., et al. <i>Early Queen Infection Shapes Developmental Dynamics and Induces Long-Term Disease Protection in Incipient Ant Colonies</i>. Dryad, 2021, doi:<a href=\"https://doi.org/10.5061/DRYAD.7PVMCVDTJ\">10.5061/DRYAD.7PVMCVDTJ</a>.","ieee":"B. E. Casillas Perez, C. Pull, F. Naiser, E. Naderlinger, J. Matas, and S. Cremer, “Early queen infection shapes developmental dynamics and induces long-term disease protection in incipient ant colonies.” Dryad, 2021.","short":"B.E. Casillas Perez, C. Pull, F. Naiser, E. Naderlinger, J. Matas, S. Cremer, (2021).","apa":"Casillas Perez, B. E., Pull, C., Naiser, F., Naderlinger, E., Matas, J., &#38; Cremer, S. (2021). Early queen infection shapes developmental dynamics and induces long-term disease protection in incipient ant colonies. Dryad. <a href=\"https://doi.org/10.5061/DRYAD.7PVMCVDTJ\">https://doi.org/10.5061/DRYAD.7PVMCVDTJ</a>","ama":"Casillas Perez BE, Pull C, Naiser F, Naderlinger E, Matas J, Cremer S. Early queen infection shapes developmental dynamics and induces long-term disease protection in incipient ant colonies. 2021. doi:<a href=\"https://doi.org/10.5061/DRYAD.7PVMCVDTJ\">10.5061/DRYAD.7PVMCVDTJ</a>","chicago":"Casillas Perez, Barbara E, Christopher Pull, Filip Naiser, Elisabeth Naderlinger, Jiri Matas, and Sylvia Cremer. “Early Queen Infection Shapes Developmental Dynamics and Induces Long-Term Disease Protection in Incipient Ant Colonies.” Dryad, 2021. <a href=\"https://doi.org/10.5061/DRYAD.7PVMCVDTJ\">https://doi.org/10.5061/DRYAD.7PVMCVDTJ</a>."},"ddc":["570"],"ec_funded":1,"user_id":"2DF688A6-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87","date_published":"2021-10-29T00:00:00Z","title":"Early queen infection shapes developmental dynamics and induces long-term disease protection in incipient ant colonies","author":[{"id":"351ED2AA-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87","first_name":"Barbara E","full_name":"Casillas Perez, Barbara E","last_name":"Casillas Perez"},{"orcid":"0000-0003-1122-3982","id":"3C7F4840-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87","last_name":"Pull","full_name":"Pull, Christopher","first_name":"Christopher"},{"first_name":"Filip","full_name":"Naiser, Filip","last_name":"Naiser"},{"last_name":"Naderlinger","full_name":"Naderlinger, Elisabeth","first_name":"Elisabeth"},{"first_name":"Jiri","full_name":"Matas, Jiri","last_name":"Matas"},{"id":"2F64EC8C-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87","full_name":"Cremer, Sylvia","first_name":"Sylvia","last_name":"Cremer","orcid":"0000-0002-2193-3868"}],"doi":"10.5061/DRYAD.7PVMCVDTJ","publisher":"Dryad","license":"https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/","oa":1,"main_file_link":[{"open_access":"1","url":"https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.7pvmcvdtj"}],"date_updated":"2025-04-14T13:55:31Z","abstract":[{"lang":"eng","text":"Infections early in life can have enduring effects on an organism’s development and immunity. In this study, we show that this equally applies to developing “superorganisms” – incipient social insect colonies. When we exposed newly mated Lasius niger ant queens to a low pathogen dose, their colonies grew more slowly than controls before winter, but reached similar sizes afterwards. Independent of exposure, queen hibernation survival improved when the ratio of pupae to workers was small. Queens that reared fewer pupae before worker emergence exhibited lower pathogen levels, indicating that high brood rearing efforts interfere with the ability of the queen’s immune system to suppress pathogen proliferation. Early-life queen pathogen-exposure also improved the immunocompetence of her worker offspring, as demonstrated by challenging the workers to the same pathogen a year later. Transgenerational transfer of the queen’s pathogen experience to her workforce can hence durably reduce the disease susceptibility of the whole superorganism."}],"month":"10","year":"2021","corr_author":"1","related_material":{"record":[{"relation":"used_in_publication","status":"public","id":"10284"}]},"_id":"13061","project":[{"_id":"2649B4DE-B435-11E9-9278-68D0E5697425","name":"Epidemics in ant societies on a chip","call_identifier":"H2020","grant_number":"771402"}],"status":"public","day":"29","department":[{"_id":"SyCr"}]},{"alternative_title":["ISTA Thesis"],"doi":"10.15479/AT:ISTA:6435","OA_place":"publisher","author":[{"last_name":"Casillas Perez","full_name":"Casillas Perez, Barbara E","first_name":"Barbara E","id":"351ED2AA-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87"}],"title":"Collective defenses of garden ants against a fungal pathogen","citation":{"short":"B.E. Casillas Perez, Collective Defenses of Garden Ants against a Fungal Pathogen, Institute of Science and Technology Austria, 2019.","ama":"Casillas Perez BE. Collective defenses of garden ants against a fungal pathogen. 2019. doi:<a href=\"https://doi.org/10.15479/AT:ISTA:6435\">10.15479/AT:ISTA:6435</a>","chicago":"Casillas Perez, Barbara E. “Collective Defenses of Garden Ants against a Fungal Pathogen.” Institute of Science and Technology Austria, 2019. <a href=\"https://doi.org/10.15479/AT:ISTA:6435\">https://doi.org/10.15479/AT:ISTA:6435</a>.","apa":"Casillas Perez, B. E. (2019). <i>Collective defenses of garden ants against a fungal pathogen</i>. Institute of Science and Technology Austria. <a href=\"https://doi.org/10.15479/AT:ISTA:6435\">https://doi.org/10.15479/AT:ISTA:6435</a>","ieee":"B. E. Casillas Perez, “Collective defenses of garden ants against a fungal pathogen,” Institute of Science and Technology Austria, 2019.","mla":"Casillas Perez, Barbara E. <i>Collective Defenses of Garden Ants against a Fungal Pathogen</i>. Institute of Science and Technology Austria, 2019, doi:<a href=\"https://doi.org/10.15479/AT:ISTA:6435\">10.15479/AT:ISTA:6435</a>.","ista":"Casillas Perez BE. 2019. Collective defenses of garden ants against a fungal pathogen. Institute of Science and Technology Austria."},"type":"dissertation","oa_version":"Published Version","publication_identifier":{"issn":["2663-337X"]},"day":"07","department":[{"_id":"SyCr"}],"_id":"6435","publication_status":"published","language":[{"iso":"eng"}],"related_material":{"record":[{"id":"1999","status":"public","relation":"part_of_dissertation"}]},"has_accepted_license":"1","month":"05","acknowledged_ssus":[{"_id":"Bio"},{"_id":"ScienComp"},{"_id":"M-Shop"},{"_id":"LifeSc"}],"date_updated":"2026-04-08T14:02:12Z","oa":1,"keyword":["Social Immunity","Sanitary care","Social Insects","Organisational Immunity","Colony development","Multi-target tracking"],"publisher":"Institute of Science and Technology Austria","file":[{"relation":"main_file","access_level":"open_access","file_id":"6438","content_type":"application/pdf","checksum":"6daf2d2086111aa8fd3fbc919a3e2833","date_created":"2019-05-13T09:16:20Z","date_updated":"2021-02-11T11:17:15Z","file_size":3895187,"file_name":"tesisDoctoradoBC.pdf","creator":"casillas","embargo":"2020-05-08"},{"relation":"source_file","access_level":"closed","checksum":"3d221aaff7559a7060230a1ff610594f","content_type":"application/zip","file_id":"6439","file_size":7365118,"date_updated":"2020-07-14T12:47:30Z","date_created":"2019-05-13T09:16:20Z","embargo_to":"open_access","file_name":"tesisDoctoradoBC.zip","creator":"casillas"}],"ec_funded":1,"date_published":"2019-05-07T00:00:00Z","user_id":"ba8df636-2132-11f1-aed0-ed93e2281fdd","ddc":["570","006","578","592"],"article_processing_charge":"No","file_date_updated":"2021-02-11T11:17:15Z","date_created":"2019-05-13T08:58:35Z","status":"public","supervisor":[{"orcid":"0000-0002-2193-3868","id":"2F64EC8C-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87","last_name":"Cremer","full_name":"Cremer, Sylvia M","first_name":"Sylvia M"}],"project":[{"name":"Epidemics in ant societies on a chip","_id":"2649B4DE-B435-11E9-9278-68D0E5697425","call_identifier":"H2020","grant_number":"771402"}],"page":"183","corr_author":"1","year":"2019","degree_awarded":"PhD","abstract":[{"lang":"eng","text":"Social insect colonies tend to have numerous members which function together like a single organism in such harmony that the term ``super-organism'' is often used. In this analogy the reproductive caste is analogous to the primordial germ\r\ncells of a metazoan, while the sterile worker caste corresponds to somatic cells. The worker castes, like tissues, are\r\nin charge of all functions of a living being, besides reproduction. The establishment of new super-organismal units\r\n(i.e. new colonies) is accomplished by the co-dependent castes. The term oftentimes goes beyond a metaphor. We invoke it when we speak about the metabolic rate, thermoregulation, nutrient regulation and gas exchange of a social insect colony. Furthermore, we assert that the super-organism has an immune system, and benefits from ``social immunity''.\r\n\r\nSocial immunity was first summoned by evolutionary biologists to resolve the apparent discrepancy between the expected high frequency of disease outbreak amongst numerous, closely related tightly-interacting hosts, living in stable and microbially-rich environments, against the exceptionally scarce epidemic accounts in natural populations. Social\r\nimmunity comprises a multi-layer assembly of behaviours which have evolved to effectively keep the pathogenic enemies of a colony at bay. The field of social immunity has drawn interest, as it becomes increasingly urgent to stop\r\nthe collapse of pollinator species and curb the growth of invasive pests. In the past decade, several mechanisms of\r\nsocial immune responses have been dissected, but many more questions remain open.\r\n\r\nI present my work in two experimental chapters. In the first, I use invasive garden ants (*Lasius neglectus*) to study how pathogen load and its distribution among nestmates affect the grooming response of the group. Any given group of ants will carry out the same total grooming work, but will direct their grooming effort towards individuals\r\ncarrying a relatively higher spore load. Contrary to expectation, the highest risk of transmission does not stem from grooming highly contaminated ants, but instead, we suggest that the grooming response likely minimizes spore loss to the environment, reducing contamination from inadvertent pickup from the substrate.\r\n\r\nThe second is a comparative developmental approach. I follow black garden ant queens (*Lasius niger*) and their colonies from mating flight, through hibernation for a year. Colonies which grow fast from the start, have a lower chance of survival through hibernation, and those which survive grow at a lower pace later. This is true for colonies of naive\r\nand challenged queens. Early pathogen exposure of the queens changes colony dynamics in an unexpected way: colonies from exposed queens are more likely to grow slowly and recover in numbers only after they survive hibernation.\r\n\r\nIn addition to the two experimental chapters, this thesis includes a co-authored published review on organisational\r\nimmunity, where we enlist the experimental evidence and theoretical framework on which this hypothesis is built,\r\nidentify the caveats and underline how the field is ripe to overcome them. In a final chapter, I describe my part in\r\ntwo collaborative efforts, one to develop an image-based tracker, and the second to develop a classifier for ant\r\nbehaviour."}]}]