Microbial associates and social behavior in ants
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ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Microbial associates and social behavior in ants Alessio Sclocco1,2 · Serafino Teseo1 Received: 20 May 2020 / Accepted: 13 September 2020 © International Society of Artificial Life and Robotics (ISAROB) 2020
Abstract Current research in life sciences provides advances on how animal-associated microbes affect behavior and its underlying neurophysiology. However, studies in this field are often limited to individuals outside of their social context and neglect social dynamics. Contrarily, animals and humans develop and live in complex societies where they constantly adjust physiology and behavior to social interactions. To improve our understanding of how microbes and hosts interact and produce phenotypes at social and group levels, we need to broaden our experimental approaches to a group-level dimension. Here, we point out that eusocial insects, and ants in particular, are ideal models for this purpose. We first examine the most common types of microorganismal associations that ants engage in, and then briefly summarize what is known about the role of symbiotic microbes in ant social behavior. Finally, we propose future directions in the field, in the light of recent technical advances in behavior measuring techniques. Keywords Social evolution · Commensal microbes · Primary endosymbionts · Ants · Group-level behavior
1 Introduction In the last two decades, the microbes associated with animals, including humans, have been at the center of a multidisciplinary scientific revolution. In life sciences, correlations and causal links have been established between microbiota and a plethora of aspects relevant to animal biology and human health. A key concept emerging from this conspicuous body of scientific work is the existence of an intimate relationship between gut microbes, gut, and brain, which is usually defined as the “microbiota–gut–brain axis” [1–3]. According to this model, the communities of bacteria living in the animal gut communicate with the gut itself and the brain through multiple routes. In humans, these include the vagus nerve and the hypothalamic–pituitary axis, as well as host- and bacteria-produced neurotransmitters, cytokines, and other bacterial metabolites [4]. This network This work was presented in part at the 3rd International Symposium on Swarm Behavior and Bio-Inspired Robotics (Okinawa, Japan, November 20–22, 2019). * Serafino Teseo [email protected] 1
School of Biological Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore
Netherlands eScience Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
2
of exchanges affects individual neurophysiology and the resulting behavioral output (Fig. 1a). Although gut microbes attract most of the interest in the scientific community, relevant connections between brains and animal-associated microbes can be broadened to include bacteria dwelling in all locations of the host body [5–8]. Effects of microbiota on behavior are frequently described, but little is known about the relationships between the microbiota–gut–brain axis and t
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