IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/nature/v441y2006i7095d10.1038_nature04698.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Sperm storage induces an immunity cost in ants

Author

Listed:
  • Boris Baer

    (Institute of Biology
    Zoology Building, School of Animal Biology (MO92), The University of Western Australia)

  • Sophie A. O. Armitage

    (Institute of Biology)

  • Jacobus J. Boomsma

    (Institute of Biology)

Abstract

Ant queens are among the most long-lived insects known1,2. They mate early in adult life and maintain millions of viable sperm in their sperm storage organ until they die many years later3,4. Because they never re-mate, the reproductive success of queens is ultimately sperm-limited, but it is not known what selective forces determine the upper limit to sperm storage. Here we show that sperm storage carries a significant cost of reduced immunity during colony founding. Newly mated queens of the leaf-cutting ant Atta colombica upregulate their immune response shortly after completing their nest burrow, probably as an adaptive response to a greater exposure to pathogens in the absence of grooming workers. However, the immune response nine days after colony founding is negatively correlated with the amount of sperm in the sperm storage organ, indicating that short-term survival is traded off against long-term reproductive success. The immune response was lower when more males contributed to the stored sperm, indicating that there might be an additional cost of mating or storing genetically different ejaculates.

Suggested Citation

  • Boris Baer & Sophie A. O. Armitage & Jacobus J. Boomsma, 2006. "Sperm storage induces an immunity cost in ants," Nature, Nature, vol. 441(7095), pages 872-875, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:441:y:2006:i:7095:d:10.1038_nature04698
    DOI: 10.1038/nature04698
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/nature04698
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/nature04698?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:441:y:2006:i:7095:d:10.1038_nature04698. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.