Journal
ANNUAL REVIEW OF ENTOMOLOGY, VOL 63
Volume 63, Issue -, Pages 105-123Publisher
ANNUAL REVIEWS
DOI: 10.1146/annurev-ento-020117-043110
Keywords
host-pathogen dynamics; superorganism; behavioral disease defense; collective behavior; resistance; tolerance
Categories
Funding
- Austrian Science Fund (FWF) [M 2076] Funding Source: researchfish
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Social insect colonies have evolved many collectively performed adaptations that reduce the impact of infectious disease and that are expected to maximize their fitness. This colony-level protection is termed social immunity, and it enhances the health and survival of the colony. In this review, we address how social immunity emerges from its mechanistic components to produce colony-level disease avoidance, resistance, and tolerance. To understand the evolutionary causes and consequences of social immunity, we highlight the need for studies that evaluate the effects of social immunity on colony fitness. We discuss the roles that host life history and ecology have on predicted eco-evolutionary dynamics, which differ among the social insect lineages. Throughout the review, we highlight current gaps in our knowledge and promising avenues for future research, which we hope will bring us closer to an integrated understanding of socio-eco-evo-immunology.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available