The Mechanisms of Social Immunity Against Fungal Infections in Eusocial Insects

Long, Ling; Zhao, Xingbo; Tang, Qingbo; Lei, Chaoliang; Huang, Qiuying

doi:10.3390/toxins11050244

Cited by 75 publications

(69 citation statements)

References 140 publications

(314 reference statements)

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“…With interspecific hybridization, termites may increase the mating opportunities for dealates and may transfer their genes to neighbor species. The lack of preference for conspecifics in mating behavior may also benefit themselves because the offspring produced by hybridization may obtain heterosis, such as strong immunity [28] and greater escape speed from natural enemies [7,37]. We predict that hybridization between these two sympatric Reticulitermes species might happen in nature.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Thus, overzealously seeking conspecific out-breeding partners may result in the loss of an individual's mating opportunities. For dealate termites, failing to mate means entomopathogenic infections [28], capture by natural enemies, and loss of all fitness. However, accepting a heterospecific partner permissively may allow an individual to experience higher fitness costs because of incompatible epistatic interactions between genes from different species.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Interspecific Hybridization between the Two Sympatric Termite Reticulitermes Species under Laboratory Conditions

Hassan

et al. 2019

Insects

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Closely related species have similar reproductive behaviors and recognition systems, which contribute to interspecific interactions. However, few studies have explored interspecific reproduction choice and mating in termites. We investigated whether hybridization between two sympatric termites, Reticulitermes flaviceps and R. chinensis, occurs under laboratory conditions. We found that frequencies of acceptance were significantly higher than those of agonism between interspecific partners. There were no significant differences in frequencies of tandem and mating behaviors between intraspecific and interspecific partners. However, the allogrooming frequencies of interspecific partners were significantly higher than intraspecific partners. There were no significant differences in the duration of tandem, allogrooming, or mating behavior at each time between conspecific partners and heterospecfic partners. Genotyping analyses further showed that both intraspecific and interspecific mating were able to produce offspring. We conclude that interspecific hybridization does occur between two termite Reticulitermes species under laboratory conditions.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Interspecific Hybridization between the Two Sympatric Termite Reticulitermes Species under Laboratory Conditions

Hassan

et al. 2019

Insects

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“…For example, allopreening occurs in at least 50 families of birds and controls parasites on the head and neck areas that the bird itself can't reach (Bush and Clayton, 2018). Fungal infections are a key driver of allogrooming in many eusocial insects (Octavio Lopez- Riquelme and Luisa Fanjul-Moles, 2013;Cremer et al, 2018;Liu et al, 2019). If the infectious spores aren't removed before they penetrate the cuticle, they cause an infection which is fatal to the infected individual and dangerous to other nest-mates (Octavio Lopez- Riquelme and Luisa Fanjul-Moles, 2013;Cremer et al, 2018;Liu et al, 2019).…”

Section: Groomingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Fungal infections are a key driver of allogrooming in many eusocial insects (Octavio Lopez- Riquelme and Luisa Fanjul-Moles, 2013;Cremer et al, 2018;Liu et al, 2019). If the infectious spores aren't removed before they penetrate the cuticle, they cause an infection which is fatal to the infected individual and dangerous to other nest-mates (Octavio Lopez- Riquelme and Luisa Fanjul-Moles, 2013;Cremer et al, 2018;Liu et al, 2019). These examples demonstrate the importance of allogrooming to both in the infected individual and to the broader community (Octavio Lopez- Riquelme and Luisa Fanjul-Moles, 2013;Cremer et al, 2018;Liu et al, 2019).…”

Section: Groomingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Why Care: Complex Evolutionary History of Human Healthcare Networks

Kessler

2020

Front. Psychol.

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One of the striking features of human social complexity is that we provide care to sick and contagious individuals, rather than avoiding them. Care-giving is a powerful strategy of disease control in human populations today; however, we are not the only species which provides care for the sick. Widespread reports occurring in distantly related species like cetaceans and insects suggest that the building blocks of care for the sick are older than the human lineage itself. This raises the question of what evolutionary processes drive the evolution of such care in animals, including humans. I synthesize data from the literature to evaluate the diversity of care-giving behaviors and conclude that across the animal kingdom there appear to be two distinct types of care-behaviors, both with separate evolutionary histories: (1) social care behaviors benefitting a sick individual by promoting healing and recovery and (2) community health behaviors that control pathogens in the environment and reduce transmission within the population. By synthesizing literature from psychology, anthropology, and biology, I develop a novel hypothesis (Hominin Pathogen Control Hypothesis) to explain how these two distinct sets of behaviors evolved independently then merged in the human lineage. The hypothesis suggests that social care evolved in association with offspring care systems whereas community health behaviors evolved as a type of niche construction. These two types of behaviors merged in humans to produce complex, multi-level healthcare networks in humans. Moreover, each type of care increases selection for the other, generating feedback loops that selected for increasing healthcare behaviors over time. Interestingly, domestication processes may have contributed to both social care and community health aspects of this process.

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“…This may help to explain why epizootics that can kill entire social insect colonies are in fact quite rare (Chouvenc and Su, 2012;Schmid-Hempel, 2017). Social insect individuals are able to limit infection using their individual immune systems (Cotter and Kilner, 2010;Meunier, 2015) but they have also evolved a variety of collective disease defenses to mitigate the occurrence and dissemination of infectious diseases (Cremer et al, 2007;Wilson-Rich et al, 2009) including both behavioral and physiological adaptations (Cremer et al, 2018;Bulmer et al, 2019;Liu et al, 2019). Social actions resulting in the control or elimination of infections are examples of "social immunity."…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Inhibition of a Secreted Immune Molecule Interferes With Termite Social Immunity

et al. 2020

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Social immune behaviors are described in a great variety of insect societies and their role in preventing emerging infectious diseases has become a major topic in insect research. The social immune system consists of multiple layers, ranging from the synthesis of external immune molecules to the coordination of individual behaviors into sophisticated collective defensive tasks. But our understanding of how complex group-level behavioral defenses are orchestrated has remained limited. We sought to address this gap in knowledge by investigating the relationship between the external activity of an important immune effector molecule in termites, Gram negative binding protein 2 (GNBP-2) and collective grooming and cannibalism. We reasoned that as an external enzyme capable of degrading entomopathogenic fungi, GNBP-2 can facilitate the spread of pathogenic molecules in the colony, and thus serve to trigger collective defenses in a manner analogous to pathogen-associated molecular signatures (PAMPs) of the individual immune system. To test whether GNBP-2 could play a role in regulating social immune behavior, we experimentally inhibited its fungicidal activity using the glycomimetic molecule, D-d-gluconolactone (GDL) and recorded collective behavioral responses to an infected nestmate. Contrary to expectations, GNBP-2 inhibition did not influence the rate or intensity of grooming of either control or fungus-infected nestmates. By contrast, we found that the probability of being harmed through defensive cannibalistic behaviors was significantly reduced by the inhibition of GNBP-2. Our findings indicate that the regulation of collective immune behaviors may depend in part on the external secretion of an enzyme originating from the individual immune system, but that other cues are also necessary.

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The Mechanisms of Social Immunity Against Fungal Infections in Eusocial Insects

Cited by 75 publications

References 140 publications

Interspecific Hybridization between the Two Sympatric Termite Reticulitermes Species under Laboratory Conditions

Interspecific Hybridization between the Two Sympatric Termite Reticulitermes Species under Laboratory Conditions

Why Care: Complex Evolutionary History of Human Healthcare Networks

Inhibition of a Secreted Immune Molecule Interferes With Termite Social Immunity

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