TY - JOUR AU - Negroni, Matteo Antoine AU - Segers, Francisca H. I. D. AU - Vogelweith, Fanny AU - Foitzik, Susanne PY - 2020 DA - 2020/11/23 TI - Immune challenge reduces gut microbial diversity and triggers fertility-dependent gene expression changes in a social insect JO - BMC Genomics SP - 816 VL - 21 IS - 1 AB - 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 Temnothorax rugatulus in response to an experimental induction of fertility and an immune challenge. SN - 1471-2164 UR - https://doi.org/10.1186/s12864-020-07191-9 DO - 10.1186/s12864-020-07191-9 ID - Negroni2020 ER -