TY - CONF A1 - Meconcelli, Stefania A1 - McMahon, Dino Peter T1 - Bridging the gap between individual and social immunity in colony disease defence N2 - In addition to individual immunity, social insects have evolved collective defence strategies against pathogens, which consist of behavioural, physiological and organisational adaptations. The importance of social immunity in preventing disease transmission in insect societies is well known. However, we still lack a clear understanding of how collective defence mechanisms are regulated and how they interact with the other regulatory systems of the organism such us the individual immune system. Here we assess how individual immune factors shape the collective immune response to pathogens by inhibiting a key Termite immune effector: gram-negative binding protein (tGNBP-2). tGNBP-2 triggers downstream innate immunity, in addition to cleaving fungal and bacterial pathogens directly in the external environment. We established mini-colonies of Reticulitermes flavipes inside planar arenas where we were able to observe and record hygienic behaviours (i.e. allogrooming and cannibalism) in near-natural nest conditions. Colonies were either treated with the tGNBP-2 inhibitor or a control solution, after which 5 focal workers were introduced into each colony. Focal workers were pre-exposed to either: 1) the fungal pathogen Metharizium anisopliae 2) the t-GNBP-2 inhibitor + M. anisopliae 3) a control solution. Colonies were recorded and the hygienic behaviours performed by nestmates towards focal termites were analysed. We examined the impact of tGNBP-2 inhibition on individual innate immune regulation, in addition to exploring the wider impact of immune suppression on collective social behavioural responses. T2 - International Union for the Study of Social Insects (IUSSI 2016) CY - Helsinki, Finland DA - 08.08.2016 KW - Social immunity KW - Termite KW - Destructive allogrooming PY - 2016 AN - OPUS4-38416 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -