Ants medicate to fight disease.
Parasites are ubiquitous, and the ability to defend against these is of paramount importance. One way to fight diseases is self-medication, which occurs when an organism consumes biologically active compounds to clear, inhibit, or alleviate disease symptoms. Here, we show for the first time that ants selectively consume harmful substances (reactive oxygen species, ROS) upon exposure to a fungal pathogen, yet avoid these in the absence of infection. This increased intake of ROS, while harmful to healthy ants, leads to higher survival of exposed ants. The fact that ingestion of this substance carries a fitness cost in the absence of pathogens rules out compensatory diet choice as the mechanism, and provides evidence that social insects medicate themselves against fungal infection, using a substance that carries a fitness cost to uninfected individuals.
Centre of Excellence in Biological Interactions, University of Helsinki, Finland. nick.bos@helsinki.fi.|Tvärminne Zoological Station, University of Helsinki, Finland. nick.bos@helsinki.fi.
Nick
N
Bos
Centre of Excellence in Biological Interactions, University of Helsinki, Finland.|Tvärminne Zoological Station, University of Helsinki, Finland.
Liselotte
L
Sundström
Centre of Excellence in Biological Interactions, University of Helsinki, Finland.|Tvärminne Zoological Station, University of Helsinki, Finland.
Siiri
S
Fuchs
Centre of Excellence in Biological Interactions, University of Helsinki, Finland.|Tvärminne Zoological Station, University of Helsinki, Finland.|Centre of Excellence in Biological Interactions, University of Jyväskylä, Finland.
Dalial
D
Freitak
D000818:Animals; D001000:Ants / Q000276:immunology* / Q000382:microbiology; D052982:Beauveria / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D004032:Diet; D056084:Genetic Fitness; D006861:Hydrogen Peroxide / Q000008:administration & dosage; D017382:Reactive Oxygen Species / Q000008:administration & dosage*
D017382:Reactive Oxygen Species; D006861:Hydrogen Peroxide
Diet choice; immunity; reactive oxygen species; self-medication; social insects