{"date_published":"2025-10-16T00:00:00Z","file":[{"relation":"main_file","creator":"scremer","access_level":"open_access","content_type":"text/plain","checksum":"01fbc46af38c4f72970fe2865d47a29b","success":1,"file_name":"Dawson_etal_README.txt","date_created":"2025-10-16T08:52:07Z","file_size":620,"date_updated":"2025-10-16T08:52:07Z","file_id":"20474"},{"relation":"main_file","creator":"scremer","access_level":"open_access","content_type":"application/pdf","checksum":"c3cfd7659e6fd4a6f4397ca5cd3318e7","success":1,"date_created":"2025-10-16T08:52:12Z","file_name":"Dawson_etal_Mass_Spectra.pdf","file_size":942172,"date_updated":"2025-10-16T08:52:12Z","file_id":"20475"},{"checksum":"e5ff8e8fdf2520d18d9f1d11c60c1117","success":1,"date_updated":"2025-10-16T08:52:26Z","file_size":582129,"date_created":"2025-10-16T08:52:26Z","file_name":"Dawson_etal_Peak_Areas.xlsx","file_id":"20476","relation":"main_file","creator":"scremer","access_level":"open_access","content_type":"application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet"}],"oa":1,"ddc":["570"],"user_id":"68b8ca59-c5b3-11ee-8790-cd641c68093d","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. ","title":"Altruistic disease signalling in ant colonies","project":[{"call_identifier":"H2020","name":"Epidemics in ant societies on a chip","_id":"2649B4DE-B435-11E9-9278-68D0E5697425","grant_number":"771402"}],"date_updated":"2025-10-17T09:39:03Z","citation":{"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>","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>.","short":"S. Cremer, (2025).","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>"},"keyword":["host-parasite interactions","social insects","social immunity","chemical communication","cooperation"],"ec_funded":1,"oa_version":"None","license":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/","file_date_updated":"2025-10-16T08:52:26Z","article_processing_charge":"Yes","contributor":[{"last_name":"Dawson","id":"31B4E2D0-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87","first_name":"Erika"},{"first_name":"Michaela","last_name":"Hönigsberger","id":"953894f3-25bd-11ec-8556-f70a9d38ef60"},{"first_name":"Niklas","id":"2AC57FAC-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87","last_name":"Kampleitner"},{"first_name":"Anna V","last_name":"Grasse","id":"406F989C-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87"},{"first_name":"Lukas","last_name":"Lindorfer","id":"85f0e6d3-06b3-11ec-8982-8c5049fa4455"},{"first_name":"Jennifer","id":"7bc2734a-e2c6-11ea-9824-a2ed5f0662a8","last_name":"Robb"},{"first_name":"Farnaz","last_name":"Beikzadeh Abbasi","id":"0344bfb9-3feb-11ee-87e9-c27edc800bcd"},{"last_name":"Strahodinsky","id":"979E35EE-C996-11E9-8C7C-CF13E6697425","first_name":"Florian"},{"last_name":"Leitner","id":"8fc5c6f6-5903-11ec-abad-c83f046253e7","first_name":"Hanna"},{"first_name":"Harikrishnan","id":"876b6b34-8ff4-11ec-97c9-8d95a7aae416","last_name":"Rajendran"},{"first_name":"Thomas","last_name":"Schmitt"},{"orcid":"0000-0002-2193-3868","first_name":"Sylvia","id":"2F64EC8C-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87","last_name":"Cremer"}],"tmp":{"name":"Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)","image":"/images/cc_by_nc_nd.png","legal_code_url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/legalcode","short":"CC BY-NC-ND (4.0)"},"status":"public","_id":"20471","corr_author":"1","author":[{"last_name":"Cremer","id":"2F64EC8C-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87","first_name":"Sylvia","orcid":"0000-0002-2193-3868","full_name":"Cremer, Sylvia"}],"date_created":"2025-10-16T09:02:16Z","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. "}],"year":"2025","has_accepted_license":"1","department":[{"_id":"SyCr"}],"related_material":{"record":[{"relation":"earlier_version","status":"public","id":"18892"}]},"month":"10","day":"16","publisher":"Institute of Science and Technology Austria","type":"research_data"}