TY - JOUR A1 - He, Shulin A1 - Johnston, P. R. A1 - Kuropka, B. A1 - Lokatis, S. A1 - Weise, C. A1 - Plarre, Rüdiger A1 - Kunte, Hans-Jörg A1 - McMahon, Dino Peter T1 - Termite soldiers contribute to social immunity by synthesizing potent oral secretions T2 - Insect Molecular Biology N2 - The importance of soldiers to termite Society defence has long been recognized, but the contribution of soldiers to other societal functions, such as colony immunity, is less well understood. We explore this issue by examining the role of soldiers in protecting nestmates against pathogen infection. Even though they are unable to engage in grooming behaviour, we find that the presence of soldiers of the Darwin termite, Mastotermes darwiniensis, significantly improves the survival of nestmates following entomopathogenic infection. We also show that the copious exocrine oral secretions produced by Darwin termite soldiers contain a high concentration of Proteins involved in digestion, chemical biosynthesis, and immunity. The oral secretions produced by soldiers are sufficient to protect nestmates against infection, and they have potent inhibitory activity against a broad spectrum of microbes. Our findings support the view that soldiers may play an important role in colony immunity, and broaden our understanding of the possible function of soldiers during the origin of soldier-first societies. PB - Wiley-Blackwell CY - Oxford KW - External KW - Social KW - Immunity KW - Soldier KW - Antimicrobial KW - Proteome PY - 2018 UR - https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-bam/frontdoor/index/index/docId/45726 AN - OPUS4-45726 SN - 1365-2583 SN - 0962-1075 VL - 27 IS - 5 SP - 564 EP - 576 AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany