2007 – 2010
Disease recognition and collective defence in insect societies
2010 – 2013
Natural and experimental coevolution between the invasive garden ant and its parasites (within the Framework of the Priority Program SPP 1399)
When Sylvia started her lab at the University of Regensburg, she was supported by two grants by the German Research Foundation. With her move to Austria in 2010, running DFG funding could kindly be transferred to Austria.
We studied how ants defend their colony from disease by sanitary caregiving – a process combining mechanical removal of infectious particles by grooming and chemical disinfection with their own poison, the highly potent antimicrobial formic acid.
We found that infection with a harmless symbiont triggers protective upregulation of grooming and immune effectors, which provide pre-emptive protection against later infections by more pathogenic fungi. We could also show that inbreeding can impair the ability of the ants to detect infection.
By use of an evolution experiment, we selected for fungal lines adapted to either individual or social immunity of the ants. Detailed analyses of these evolved fungal lines revealed that they are able to evade host detection by reducing their fungal smell, in particular their membrane compound ergosterol.