---
_id: '12696'
abstract:
- lang: eng
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."
acknowledged_ssus:
- _id: LifeSc
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). "
article_number: '37'
article_processing_charge: Yes
article_type: original
author:
- first_name: Sina
full_name: Metzler, Sina
id: 48204546-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87
last_name: Metzler
orcid: 0000-0002-9547-2494
- first_name: Jessica
full_name: Kirchner, Jessica
id: 21516227-15aa-11ec-9fb2-c6e8ffc155d3
last_name: Kirchner
- first_name: Anna V
full_name: Grasse, Anna V
id: 406F989C-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87
last_name: Grasse
- first_name: Sylvia
full_name: Cremer, Sylvia
id: 2F64EC8C-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87
last_name: Cremer
orcid: 0000-0002-2193-3868
citation:
ama: Metzler S, Kirchner J, Grasse AV, Cremer S. Trade-offs between immunity and
competitive ability in fighting ant males. BMC Ecology and Evolution. 2023;23.
doi:10.1186/s12862-023-02137-7
apa: Metzler, S., Kirchner, J., Grasse, A. V., & Cremer, S. (2023). Trade-offs
between immunity and competitive ability in fighting ant males. BMC Ecology
and Evolution. Springer Nature. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12862-023-02137-7
chicago: Metzler, Sina, Jessica Kirchner, Anna V Grasse, and Sylvia Cremer. “Trade-Offs
between Immunity and Competitive Ability in Fighting Ant Males.” BMC Ecology
and Evolution. Springer Nature, 2023. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12862-023-02137-7.
ieee: S. Metzler, J. Kirchner, A. V. Grasse, and S. Cremer, “Trade-offs between
immunity and competitive ability in fighting ant males,” BMC Ecology and Evolution,
vol. 23. Springer Nature, 2023.
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.” BMC Ecology and Evolution, vol. 23, 37, Springer
Nature, 2023, doi:10.1186/s12862-023-02137-7.
short: S. Metzler, J. Kirchner, A.V. Grasse, S. Cremer, BMC Ecology and Evolution
23 (2023).
date_created: 2023-02-28T07:38:17Z
date_published: 2023-08-07T00:00:00Z
date_updated: 2023-12-13T11:13:14Z
day: '07'
ddc:
- '570'
department:
- _id: SyCr
doi: 10.1186/s12862-023-02137-7
ec_funded: 1
external_id:
isi:
- '001042643600002'
pmid:
- '37550612'
file:
- access_level: open_access
checksum: 95966dc7d242d2c85bdd4fe14233dbd8
content_type: application/pdf
creator: dernst
date_created: 2023-08-14T07:51:47Z
date_updated: 2023-08-14T07:51:47Z
file_id: '14048'
file_name: 2023_BMCEcology_Metzler.pdf
file_size: 2004276
relation: main_file
success: 1
file_date_updated: 2023-08-14T07:51:47Z
has_accepted_license: '1'
intvolume: ' 23'
isi: 1
language:
- iso: eng
month: '08'
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
publication: BMC Ecology and Evolution
publication_identifier:
issn:
- 2730-7182
publication_status: published
publisher: Springer Nature
quality_controlled: '1'
related_material:
record:
- id: '12693'
relation: research_data
status: public
scopus_import: '1'
status: public
title: Trade-offs between immunity and competitive ability in fighting ant males
tmp:
image: /images/cc_by.png
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: 23
year: '2023'
...