1. Immune response in paper wasp workers: Task matters more than age.
- Author
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Prato, Amanda, Fernando Santos, Eduardo, Mendes Ferreira, Helena, Akemi Oi, Cintia, Santos do Nascimento, Fábio, Rantala, Markus J., Krams, Indrikis, and Rodrigues de Souza, André
- Subjects
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IMMUNE response , *INSECT societies , *WASPS , *IMMUNOSENESCENCE , *IMMUNOREGULATION , *RISK-taking behavior , *AGE - Abstract
[Display omitted] • Foragers had a higher immune response than guards, regardless of their age. • Foragers had similar immune responses to nurses. • Immune response declined with age in wasps that did not specialize behaviorally. • Behavioral modulation of immune response can overcome immunosenescence. Workers of social hymenopterans (ants, bees and wasps) display specific tasks depending on whether they are younger or older. The relative importance of behavior and age in modulating immune function has seldom been addressed. We compared the strength of encapsulation-melanization immune response (hereafter melanotic encapsulation) in paper wasps displaying age polyethism or experimentally prevented from behavioral specialization. Foragers of Polybia paulista had higher melanotic encapsulation than guards, regardless of their age. Nevertheless, melanotic encapsulation decreased with age when wasps were prevented from behavioral specialization. Thus, in this species, worker melanotic encapsulation seems more sensitive to task than age. Foraging is considered one of the riskier behaviors in terms of pathogen exposure, so upregulating melanotic encapsulation in foragers can possibly improve both individual and colony-level resistance against infections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2024
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