TY - GEN A1 - McMahon, Dino Peter T1 - The evolution of termite immunity N2 - The evolution and mechanistic underpinnings of termite immunity are not well understood. Given the intimate relationship between sociality and disease, this represents a major gap in understanding, particularly since termites represent the only animal group outside of Hymenoptera to have evolved such advanced forms of social living. We explore the evolution of termite immunity by conducting qualitative and quantitative transcriptomic analyses from twelve cockroach and termite species occurring along a gradient of sociality. We incorporate lineages spanning the origin of eusociality, and include species from a key transitional subsocial group: the wood roaches. Firstly, we analyze immune characteristics in the context of termite phylogeny. Here, we examine the evolution of immune traits during the transition to eusociality, and explore the extent to which immune adaptations are associated with evolutionary shifts in social complexity and ecology. Secondly, we conduct a quantitative analysis of responses to a common immune stimulus to examine the role of both sociality and caste in immunity. Here, we test the hypothesis that the evolution of division of labour – and associated increases in investment into costly altruistic (immune) traits – occurred at the expense of individual immunity in the sterile caste. T2 - Ecological Immunology Workshop 2017 CY - Blossin, Brandenburg, Germany DA - 28.08.2017 KW - Evolution KW - Termite KW - Immunity PY - 2017 UR - https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-bam/frontdoor/index/index/docId/44244 AN - OPUS4-44244 AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany