---
res:
  bibo_abstract:
  - "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.@eng"
  bibo_authorlist:
  - foaf_Person:
      foaf_givenName: Sina
      foaf_name: Metzler, Sina
      foaf_surname: Metzler
      foaf_workInfoHomepage: http://www.librecat.org/personId=48204546-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87
    orcid: 0000-0002-9547-2494
  bibo_doi: 10.15479/AT:ISTA:10727
  dct_date: 2022^xs_gYear
  dct_isPartOf:
  - http://id.crossref.org/issn/2663-337X
  dct_language: eng
  dct_publisher: Institute of Science and Technology Austria@
  dct_title: Pathogen-mediated sexual selection and immunization in ant colonies@
...