TY - CONF A1 - He, Shulin A1 - McMahon, Dino Peter A1 - Lokatis, S. T1 - Defend and disinfect: a flexible role for soldiers in termite society N2 - The first sterile caste to evolve in termites was the soldier. While the importance of soldiers to termite society defense has long been recognized, 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 behavior, 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. T2 - Congress of the European Society for Evolutionary Biology CY - Groningen, Netherlands DA - 20.08.2018 KW - Termite KW - Immunity KW - Social PY - 2017 AN - OPUS4-44248 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - He, Shulin A1 - Lokatis, S. A1 - McMahon, Dino Peter T1 - Defend and disinfect: a flexible role for soldiers in termite society N2 - The first sterile caste to evolve in termites was the soldier. While the importance of soldiers to termite society defense has long been recognized, 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 behavior, 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. T2 - 22nd Graduate Meeting in Evolutionary Biology of the German Zoological Society CY - Plön, Germany DA - 12.09.2017 KW - Termite KW - Social KW - Immunity PY - 2017 AN - OPUS4-44249 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - He, Shulin A1 - McMahon, Dino Peter T1 - Differentiation of immune response with castes in termites N2 - Effective immunity is essential for maintaining insect society integrity but the mechanisms that connect immunity at the level of the individual to the level of society are poorly understood. Here, we begin to resolve this issue by addressing the interaction between individual immunity and caste identity in the termite Neotermes castaneus. We characterize the transcriptomic responses of different castes to a general immune challenge by sequencing mRNAs from false workers, soldiers and reproductive following injection with a cocktail of heat-killed pathogens. We found many more genes to be differentially regulated in reproductives (1420 and 398 genes down- and upregulated respectively) than soldiers (90 and 108 genes) or false workers (135 and 71 genes). We go on to conduct a quantitative analysis of the specific changes to immune regulation across the castes following pathogen exposure, before discussing the implications of these findings for our understanding of the evolution of immunity in eusocial termites. T2 - Ecological Immunology Workshop 2017 CY - Blossin, Brandenburg, Germany DA - 28.08.2017 KW - Termite KW - Immunity KW - Caste PY - 2017 AN - OPUS4-44251 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - He, Shulin A1 - McMahon, Dino Peter T1 - Differentiation of immune response with castes in termites by de novo transcriptome sequencing N2 - Eusociality is one major evolutionary transitions, during which the division of labor is considered as the hallmark feature. This character of evolution, also interpreted as task specialization, is associated with multiple morphological, physiological and behavioral adaptations required for brood care, foraging, and defense. With these adaptations which ultimately cause the formation of castes in insect sociality (mostly in termites, ants, some bees and wasps), while whether immune system is related to eusociality in termites is rare understood. We hypothesis that immune system in termite sociality had also differentiation along with the formation of castes. We address this issue by exploring the immune responses of different castes with de novo transcriptome sequencing. After injection with cocktail of heat-killed pathogens (Pseudomonas entomophila, Bacillus thuringiensis, Saccharomyces cerevisiae), the mRNAs from false workers, soldiers and reproductive of Neotermes canstaneus were sequenced. We found much more genes are regulated (1420 genes downregulated and 398 genes upregulated) in reproductives compared to soldiers (90 genes downregulated and 108 genes upregulated) and false workers (135 genes downregulated and 71 genes upregulated). In these upregulated genes, reproductives had 54 same genes as soldiers, while only 7 same genes as workers which almost is same number between soldiers and workers. In the downregulated genes, reproductives shared 50 and 41 same genes as soldiers and workers, respectively. Besides, soldiers and workers had 29 same downregulated genes. From these findings, it is indicated that the immune system differentiates with division of labor during eusociality in termites. T2 - V. Central European Meeting of IUSSI 2017 CY - Kloster Schöntal, Deutschland DA - 09.10.2017 KW - Immunity KW - Social KW - Termite KW - Transcriptome PY - 2017 AN - OPUS4-44252 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - He, Shulin A1 - McMahon, Dino Peter T1 - The evolution of immunity during the transition to eusociality 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 - CONFLICT AND COOPERATION – BRIDGING EVOLUTION, ECOLOGY AND IMMUNOLOGY" PHD STUDENT MEETING CY - Bautzen, Germany DA - 16.03.2018 KW - Evolution KW - Termite KW - Immunity PY - 2017 AN - OPUS4-44253 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -