Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item:
http://doi.org/10.25358/openscience-5791
Authors: | Negroni, Matteo Antoine Segers, Francisca H. I. D. Vogelweith, Fanny Foitzik, Susanne |
Title: | Immune challenge reduces gut microbial diversity and triggers fertility-dependent gene expression changes in a social insect |
Online publication date: | 23-Apr-2021 |
Year of first publication: | 2020 |
Language: | english |
Abstract: | BACKGROUND The gut microbiome can influence life history traits associated with host fitness such as fecundity and longevity. In most organisms, these two life history traits are traded-off, while they are positively linked in social insects. In ants, highly fecund queens can live for decades, while their non-reproducing workers exhibit much shorter lifespans. Yet, when fertility is induced in workers by death or removal of the queen, worker lifespan can increase. It is unclear how this positive link between fecundity and longevity is achieved and what role the gut microbiome and the immune system play in this. To gain insights into the molecular regulation of lifespan in social insects, we investigated fat body gene expression and gut microbiome composition in workers of the ant Temnothorax rugatulus in response to an experimental induction of fertility and an immune challenge. RESULTS Fertile workers upregulated several molecular repair mechanisms, which could explain their extended lifespan. The immune challenge altered the expression of several thousand genes in the fat body, including many immune genes, and, interestingly, this transcriptomic response depended on worker fertility. For example, only fertile, immune-challenged workers upregulated genes involved in the synthesis of alpha-ketoglutarate, an immune system regulator, which extends the lifespan in Caenorhabditis elegans by down-regulating the TOR pathway and reducing oxidant production. Additionally, we observed a dramatic loss in bacterial diversity in the guts of the ants within a day of the immune challenge. Yet, bacterial density did not change, so that the gut microbiomes of many immune challenged workers consisted of only a single or a few bacterial strains. Moreover, the expression of immune genes was linked to the gut microbiome composition, suggesting that the ant host can regulate the microbiome in its gut. CONCLUSIONS Immune system flare-ups can have negative consequence on gut microbiome diversity, pointing to a previously underrated cost of immunity. Moreover, our results provide important insights into shifts in the molecular regulation of fertility and longevity associated with insect sociality. |
DDC: | 570 Biowissenschaften 570 Life sciences |
Institution: | Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz |
Department: | FB 10 Biologie |
Place: | Mainz |
ROR: | https://ror.org/023b0x485 |
DOI: | http://doi.org/10.25358/openscience-5791 |
Version: | Published version |
Publication type: | Zeitschriftenaufsatz |
License: | CC BY |
Information on rights of use: | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
Journal: | BMC genomics 21 |
Pages or article number: | 816 |
Publisher: | BioMed Central |
Publisher place: | London |
Issue date: | 2020 |
ISSN: | 1471-2164 |
Publisher URL: | https://doi.org/10.1186/s12864-020-07191-9 |
Publisher DOI: | 10.1186/s12864-020-07191-9 |
Appears in collections: | JGU-Publikationen |
Files in This Item:
File | Description | Size | Format | ||
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negroni_matteo...-immune_challen-20210421123124230.pdf | 1.94 MB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |