Cremer Social Immunity Research @ ISTA
Social immunity
We study how ants cooperate to fight disease by individual and collective behaviour, use of disinfectants and their physiological immune systems.
Social insect colonies are protected against disease by cooperative disease defences
Social insect colonies are protected against disease by cooperative disease defences of their colony members, providing social immunity to the colony. We use ants as a model system to understand the emergence, mechanisms and fitness effects of social immunity.
Colony members are providing social immunity
- Social insect colonies are protected against disease by cooperative disease defences of their colony members, providing social immunity to the colony.
- We use ants as a model system to understand the emergence, mechanisms and fitness effects of social immunity.
- The colonies of ants and other social insects represent a special form of social organization.
- They are “superorganismal societies“
- This means that on one hand – like in other societies – disease spread between host individuals is affected by their social interaction networks. Ants are actively modulating their behaviors and hence social contact networks upon pathogen contact, thereby using „organizational immunity“ to reduce epidemics.
- On the other hand – very much in contrast to most other societies – they form a superorganism, in which all colony members form only a single reproductive entity. Just like a single organism, in which all cells cooperate, all colony members cooperate in superorganisms, even if they are separated individuals.
- The social immune system of a superorganism hence shows many parallels to the immune system of, e.g. a vertebrate body.
Recent publications
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(PNAS, 2024) Frequent horizontal chromosome transfer between asexual fungal insect pathogens
This study demonstrates that horizontal transfer of entire chromosomes, previously thought unlikely, occurs both within and across species in the fungus Metarhizium, providing a competitive advantage to recipient strains under certain conditions.