thesis Barbara E Casillas Perez author 351ED2AA-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87 Christopher Pull author 3C7F4840-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A870000-0003-1122-3982 Filip Naiser author Elisabeth Naderlinger author Jiri Matas author Sylvia Cremer author 2F64EC8C-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A870000-0002-2193-3868 SyCr department Epidemics in ant societies on a chip project 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. https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ Dryad2021 10.5061/DRYAD.7PVMCVDTJ https://research-explorer.ista.ac.at/record/10284 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>. 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> B.E. Casillas Perez, C. Pull, F. Naiser, E. Naderlinger, J. Matas, S. Cremer, (2021). 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>. 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> 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>. 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. 130612023-05-23T16:14:35Z2025-04-14T13:55:31Z