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Chemical and behavioural strategies along the spectrum of host specificity in ant-associated silverfish

BACKGROUND: Host range is a fundamental trait to understand the ecological and evolutionary dynamics of symbionts. Increasing host specificity is expected to be accompanied with specialization in different symbiont traits. We tested this specificity-specialization association in a large group of 16...

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Autores principales: Parmentier, T., Gaju-Ricart, M., Wenseleers, T., Molero-Baltanás, R.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10127367/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37170164
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40850-022-00118-9
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author Parmentier, T.
Gaju-Ricart, M.
Wenseleers, T.
Molero-Baltanás, R.
author_facet Parmentier, T.
Gaju-Ricart, M.
Wenseleers, T.
Molero-Baltanás, R.
author_sort Parmentier, T.
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Host range is a fundamental trait to understand the ecological and evolutionary dynamics of symbionts. Increasing host specificity is expected to be accompanied with specialization in different symbiont traits. We tested this specificity-specialization association in a large group of 16 ant-associated silverfish species by linking their level of host specificity to their degree of behavioural integration into the colony and to their accuracy of chemically imitating the host’s recognition system, i.e. the cuticular hydrocarbon (CHC) profile. RESULTS: As expected, facultative associates and host generalists (targeting multiple unrelated ants) tend to avoid the host, whereas host-specialists (typically restricted to Messor ants) were bolder, approached the host and allowed inspection. Generalists and host specialists regularly followed a host worker, unlike the other silverfish. Host aggression was extremely high toward non-ant-associated silverfish and modest to low in ant-associated groups. Surprisingly, the degree of chemical deception was not linked to host specificity as most silverfish, including facultative ant associates, imitated the host’s CHC profile. Messor specialists retained the same CHC profile as the host after moulting, in contrast to a host generalist, suggesting an active production of the cues (chemical mimicry). Host generalist and facultative associates flexibly copied the highly different CHC profiles of alternative host species, pointing at passive acquisition (chemical camouflage) of the host’s odour. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, we found that behaviour that seems to facilitate the integration in the host colony was more pronounced in host specialist silverfish. Chemical deception, however, was employed by all ant-associated species, irrespective of their degree of host specificity. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s40850-022-00118-9.
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spelling pubmed-101273672023-04-26 Chemical and behavioural strategies along the spectrum of host specificity in ant-associated silverfish Parmentier, T. Gaju-Ricart, M. Wenseleers, T. Molero-Baltanás, R. BMC Zool Research BACKGROUND: Host range is a fundamental trait to understand the ecological and evolutionary dynamics of symbionts. Increasing host specificity is expected to be accompanied with specialization in different symbiont traits. We tested this specificity-specialization association in a large group of 16 ant-associated silverfish species by linking their level of host specificity to their degree of behavioural integration into the colony and to their accuracy of chemically imitating the host’s recognition system, i.e. the cuticular hydrocarbon (CHC) profile. RESULTS: As expected, facultative associates and host generalists (targeting multiple unrelated ants) tend to avoid the host, whereas host-specialists (typically restricted to Messor ants) were bolder, approached the host and allowed inspection. Generalists and host specialists regularly followed a host worker, unlike the other silverfish. Host aggression was extremely high toward non-ant-associated silverfish and modest to low in ant-associated groups. Surprisingly, the degree of chemical deception was not linked to host specificity as most silverfish, including facultative ant associates, imitated the host’s CHC profile. Messor specialists retained the same CHC profile as the host after moulting, in contrast to a host generalist, suggesting an active production of the cues (chemical mimicry). Host generalist and facultative associates flexibly copied the highly different CHC profiles of alternative host species, pointing at passive acquisition (chemical camouflage) of the host’s odour. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, we found that behaviour that seems to facilitate the integration in the host colony was more pronounced in host specialist silverfish. Chemical deception, however, was employed by all ant-associated species, irrespective of their degree of host specificity. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s40850-022-00118-9. BioMed Central 2022-05-11 /pmc/articles/PMC10127367/ /pubmed/37170164 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40850-022-00118-9 Text en © The Author(s) 2022 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) ) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.
spellingShingle Research
Parmentier, T.
Gaju-Ricart, M.
Wenseleers, T.
Molero-Baltanás, R.
Chemical and behavioural strategies along the spectrum of host specificity in ant-associated silverfish
title Chemical and behavioural strategies along the spectrum of host specificity in ant-associated silverfish
title_full Chemical and behavioural strategies along the spectrum of host specificity in ant-associated silverfish
title_fullStr Chemical and behavioural strategies along the spectrum of host specificity in ant-associated silverfish
title_full_unstemmed Chemical and behavioural strategies along the spectrum of host specificity in ant-associated silverfish
title_short Chemical and behavioural strategies along the spectrum of host specificity in ant-associated silverfish
title_sort chemical and behavioural strategies along the spectrum of host specificity in ant-associated silverfish
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10127367/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37170164
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40850-022-00118-9
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