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 JF - Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution 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 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-520037 DO - https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2020.00075 VL - 8 SP - Article 75 AN - OPUS4-52003 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Oberpaul, M. A1 - Zumkeller, C. M. A1 - Culver, T. A1 - Spohn, M. A1 - Mihajlovic1, S. A1 - Leis, B. A1 - Glaeser, S. P. A1 - Plarre, Rüdiger A1 - McMahon, Dino Peter A1 - Hammann, P. A1 - Schäberle, T. F. A1 - Glaeser, J. A1 - Vilcinskas, A. T1 - High-Throughput Cultivation for the Selective Isolation of Acidobacteria From Termite Nests JF - Frontiers in Microbiology N2 - Microbial communities in the immediate environment of socialized invertebrates can help to suppress pathogens, in part by synthesizing bioactive natural products. Here we characterized the core microbiomes of three termite species (genus Coptotermes) and their nest material to gain more insight into the diversity of termite-associated bacteria. Sampling a healthy termite colony over time implicated a consolidated and highly stable microbiome, pointing toward the fact that beneficial bacterial phyla play a major role in termite fitness. In contrast, there was a significant shift in the composition of the core microbiome in one nest during a fungal infection, affecting the abundance of wellcharacterized Streptomyces species (phylum Actinobacteria) as well as less-studied bacterial phyla such as Acidobacteria. High-throughput cultivation in microplates was implemented to isolate and identify these less-studied bacterial phylogenetic group. Amplicon sequencing confirmed that our method maintained the bacterial diversity of the environmental samples, enabling the isolation of novel Acidobacteriaceae and expanding the list of cultivated species to include two strains that may define new species within the genera Terracidiphilus and Acidobacterium. KW - Termite-associated microbes KW - Termites KW - Coptotermes KW - Core microbiome KW - Natural products discovery KW - Acidobacteria KW - underexplored phyla KW - Social insects PY - 2020 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-515283 DO - https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2020.597628 VL - 11 SP - 1 EP - 16 AN - OPUS4-51528 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Tauber, J. P. A1 - Einspanier, R. A1 - Evans, J. D. A1 - McMahon, Dino Peter T1 - Co-incubation of dsRNA reduces proportion of viable spores of Ascosphaera apis , a honey bee fungal pathogen JF - Journal of Apicultural Research N2 - There are viral, fungal, bacterial and trypanosomal pathogens that negatively impact the individual and superorganismal health of the western honey bee. One fungal pathogen, Ascosphaera apis , affects larvae and causes the disease chalkbrood. A previous genome analysis of As. apis revealed that its genome encodes for RNA interference genes, similar to other fungi and eukaryotes. Here, we examined whether As. apis -targeting double-stranded RNA species could disrupt the germination of As. apis. We observed that when spores were co-incubated with As. apis -targeting dsRNA, fewer spores were activated for germination, suggesting an uptake of exogenous genetic material at the very onset of germination and consequent damage to essential transcripts needed for germination. Overall, these results indicate that the causative agent of chalkbrood disease, As. apis , can be successfully targeted using an RNAi-based strategy. KW - DsRNA KW - Honey bee KW - Pathogen KW - Ascosphaera apis KW - RNAi KW - Control PY - 2020 DO - https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1080/00218839.2020.1754090 VL - 59 IS - 5 SP - 791 EP - 799 AN - OPUS4-52881 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -