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Formicine ants swallow their highly acidic poison for gut microbial selection and control

View ORCID ProfileSimon Tragust, Claudia Herrmann, Jane Häfner, Ronja Braasch, Christina Tilgen, Maria Hoock, Margarita Artemis Milidakis, Roy Gross, Heike Feldhaar
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.02.13.947432
Simon Tragust
1Animal Ecology I, Bayreuth Center for Ecology and Environmental Research (BayCEER), University of Bayreuth, Universitätsstraße 30, 95447 Bayreuth, Germany
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  • ORCID record for Simon Tragust
  • For correspondence: simon.tragust@zoologie.uni-halle.de
Claudia Herrmann
1Animal Ecology I, Bayreuth Center for Ecology and Environmental Research (BayCEER), University of Bayreuth, Universitätsstraße 30, 95447 Bayreuth, Germany
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Jane Häfner
1Animal Ecology I, Bayreuth Center for Ecology and Environmental Research (BayCEER), University of Bayreuth, Universitätsstraße 30, 95447 Bayreuth, Germany
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Ronja Braasch
1Animal Ecology I, Bayreuth Center for Ecology and Environmental Research (BayCEER), University of Bayreuth, Universitätsstraße 30, 95447 Bayreuth, Germany
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Christina Tilgen
1Animal Ecology I, Bayreuth Center for Ecology and Environmental Research (BayCEER), University of Bayreuth, Universitätsstraße 30, 95447 Bayreuth, Germany
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Maria Hoock
1Animal Ecology I, Bayreuth Center for Ecology and Environmental Research (BayCEER), University of Bayreuth, Universitätsstraße 30, 95447 Bayreuth, Germany
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Margarita Artemis Milidakis
1Animal Ecology I, Bayreuth Center for Ecology and Environmental Research (BayCEER), University of Bayreuth, Universitätsstraße 30, 95447 Bayreuth, Germany
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Roy Gross
2Microbiology, Biocenter, University of Würzburg, Am Hubland, 97074 Würzburg
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Heike Feldhaar
1Animal Ecology I, Bayreuth Center for Ecology and Environmental Research (BayCEER), University of Bayreuth, Universitätsstraße 30, 95447 Bayreuth, Germany
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Abstract

Animals continuously encounter microorganisms that are essential for health or cause disease. They are thus challenged to control harmful microbes while allowing acquisition of beneficial microbes, a challenge that is likely especially important concerning microbes in food and in animals such as social insects that exchange food among colony members. Here we show that formicine ants actively swallow their antimicrobial, highly acidic poison gland secretions after feeding. The ensuing creation of an acidic environment in the stomach, the crop, improves individual survival in the face of pathogen contaminated food and limits disease transmission during mutual food exchange. At the same time, crop acidification selectively allows acquisition and colonization by known bacterial gut associates. The results of our study suggest that swallowing of acidic poison gland secretions acts as a microbial filter in formicine ants and indicate a potentially widespread but so far underappreciated dual role of antimicrobials in host-microbe interactions.

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Posted February 17, 2020.
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Formicine ants swallow their highly acidic poison for gut microbial selection and control
Simon Tragust, Claudia Herrmann, Jane Häfner, Ronja Braasch, Christina Tilgen, Maria Hoock, Margarita Artemis Milidakis, Roy Gross, Heike Feldhaar
bioRxiv 2020.02.13.947432; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.02.13.947432
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Formicine ants swallow their highly acidic poison for gut microbial selection and control
Simon Tragust, Claudia Herrmann, Jane Häfner, Ronja Braasch, Christina Tilgen, Maria Hoock, Margarita Artemis Milidakis, Roy Gross, Heike Feldhaar
bioRxiv 2020.02.13.947432; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.02.13.947432

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