TY - JOUR A1 - Esparza Mora, Margy Alejandra. A1 - Davis, H. E. A1 - Meconcelli, S. A1 - McMahon, Dino Peter A1 - Plarre, Rüdiger T1 - Inhibition of a Secreted Immune Molecule Interferes With Termite Social Immunity N2 - Social immune behaviors are described in a great variety of insect societies and their role in preventing emerging infectious diseases has become a major topic in insect research. The social immune system consists of multiple layers, ranging from the synthesis of external immune molecules to the coordination of individual behaviors into sophisticated collective defensive tasks. But our understanding of how complex group-level behavioral defenses are orchestrated has remained limited. We sought to address this gap in knowledge by investigating the relationship between the external activity of an important immune effector molecule in termites, Gram negative binding protein 2 (GNBP-2) and collective grooming and cannibalism. We reasoned that as an external enzyme capable of degrading entomopathogenic fungi, GNBP-2 can facilitate the spread of pathogenic molecules in the colony, and thus serve to trigger collective defenses in a manner analogous to pathogen-associated molecular signatures (PAMPs) of the individual immune system. To test whether GNBP-2 could play a role in regulating social immune behavior, we experimentally inhibited its fungicidal activity using the glycomimetic molecule, D-d-gluconolactone (GDL) and recorded collective behavioral responses to an infected nestmate. Contrary to expectations, GNBP-2 inhibition did not influence the rate or intensity of grooming of either control or fungus-infected nestmates. By contrast, we found that the probability of being harmed through defensive cannibalistic behaviors was significantly reduced by the inhibition of GNBP-2. Our findings indicate that the regulation of collective immune behaviors may depend in part on the external secretion of an enzyme originating from the individual immune system, but that other cues are also necessary. KW - Entomopathogen KW - Termite KW - Social immunity KW - Cannibalism KW - GNBP-2 KW - Hygienic behavior KW - GDL KW - Metarhizium PY - 2020 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-520037 VL - 8 SP - Article 75 AN - OPUS4-52003 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Favet, J. A1 - Lapanje, A. A1 - Giongo, A. A1 - Kennedy, S. A1 - Aung, Y.-Y. A1 - Cattaneo, A. A1 - Davis-Richardson, A.G. A1 - Brown, C.T. A1 - Kort, R. A1 - Brumsack, H.-J. A1 - Schnetger, B. A1 - Chappell, A. A1 - Kroijenga, J. A1 - Beck, A. A1 - Schwibbert, Karin A1 - Mohamed, A.H. A1 - Kirchner, T. A1 - Dorr de Quadros, P. A1 - Triplett, E.W. A1 - Broughton, William J. A1 - Gorbushina, Anna T1 - Microbial hitchhikers on intercontinental dust: catching a lift in Chad N2 - Ancient mariners knew that dust whipped up from deserts by strong winds travelled long distances, including over oceans. Satellite remote sensing revealed major dust sources across the Sahara. Indeed, the Bodélé Depression in the Republic of Chad has been called the dustiest place on earth. We analysed desert sand from various locations in Chad and dust that had blown to the Cape Verde Islands. High throughput sequencing techniques combined with classical microbiological methods showed that the samples contained a large variety of microbes well adapted to the harsh desert conditions. The most abundant bacterial groupings in four different phyla included: (a) Firmicutes—Bacillaceae, (b) Actinobacteria—Geodermatophilaceae, Nocardiodaceae and Solirubrobacteraceae, (c) Proteobacteria—Oxalobacteraceae, Rhizobiales and Sphingomonadaceae, and (d) Bacteroidetes—Cytophagaceae. Ascomycota was the overwhelmingly dominant fungal group followed by Basidiomycota and traces of Chytridiomycota, Microsporidia and Glomeromycota. Two freshwater algae (Trebouxiophyceae) were isolated. Most predominant taxa are widely distributed land inhabitants that are common in soil and on the surfaces of plants. Examples include Bradyrhizobium spp. that nodulate and fix nitrogen in Acacia species, the predominant trees of the Sahara as well as Herbaspirillum (Oxalobacteraceae), a group of chemoorganotrophic free-living soil inhabitants that fix nitrogen in association with Gramineae roots. Few pathogenic strains were found, suggesting that African dust is not a large threat to public health. KW - Aeolian KW - High throughput sequencing KW - Bodélé Depression KW - Republic of Chad KW - Wind erosion PY - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1038/ismej.2012.152 SN - 1751-7362 SN - 1751-7370 VL - 7 SP - 850 EP - 867 PB - Nature Publishing Group CY - Basingstoke AN - OPUS4-28083 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Giongo, A. A1 - Favet, J. A1 - Lapanje, A. A1 - Gano, K.A. A1 - Kennedy, S. A1 - Davis-Richardson, A.G. A1 - Brown, C. A1 - Beck, A. A1 - Farmerie, W.G. A1 - Cattaneo, A. A1 - Crabb, D.B. A1 - Aung, Y.-Y. A1 - Kort, R. A1 - Brumsack, H.-J. A1 - Schnetger, B. A1 - Broughton, William J. A1 - Gorbushina, Anna A1 - Triplett, E.W. T1 - Microbial hitchhikers on intercontinental dust: high-throughput sequencing to catalogue microbes in small sand samples N2 - Microbiological studies on the intercontinental transport of dust are confounded by the difficulty of obtaining sufficient material for analysis. Axenic samples of dust collected at high altitudes or historic specimens in museums are often so small and precious that the material can only be sacrificed when positive results are assured. With this in mind, we evaluated current methods and developed new ones in an attempt to catalogue all microbes present in small dust or sand samples. The methods used included classical microbiological approaches in which sand extracts were plated out on a variety of different media, polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based amplification of 16S/18S rRNA sequences followed by construction of clone libraries, PCR amplification of 16S rRNA sequences followed by high-throughput sequencing (HtS) of the products and direct HtS of DNA extracted from the sand. A representative sand sample collected at Bahaï Wadi in the desert of the Republic of Chad was used. HtS with or without amplification showed the most promise and can be performed on ≤100 ng DNA. Since living microbes are often required, current best practices would involve geochemical and microscopic characterisation of the sample, followed by DNA isolation and direct HtS. Once the microbial content of the sample has been deciphered, growth conditions (including media) can be tailored to isolate the micro-organisms of interest. KW - Chad KW - Deserts KW - Eukaryota KW - 16S amplicons KW - Metagenomics PY - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s10453-012-9264-0 SN - 0393-5965 SN - 1573-3025 VL - 29 IS - 1 SP - 71 EP - 84 PB - Springer Science + Business Media B.V. CY - Dordrecht [u.a.] AN - OPUS4-27687 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -