Immune challenge reduces gut microbial diversity and triggers fertility-dependent gene expression changes in a social insect.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The gut microbiome can influence life history traits associated with host fitness such as fecundity and longevity. In most organisms, these two life history traits are traded-off, while they are positively linked in social insects. In ants, highly fecund queens can live for decades, while their non-reproducing workers exhibit much shorter lifespans. Yet, when fertility is induced in workers by death or removal of the queen, worker lifespan can increase. It is unclear how this positive link between fecundity and longevity is achieved and what role the gut microbiome and the immune system play in this. To gain insights into the molecular regulation of lifespan in social insects, we investigated fat body gene expression and gut microbiome composition in workers of the ant T

SUBMITTER: Negroni MA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7682046 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature