Objective
Transmission of pathogens is facilitated in societies whose members are related and closely interact with each other. Rapid detection of, and response to, incoming pathogens is thus crucial to prevent infectious disease outbreaks. My previous work has shown that ant societies indeed react immediately to incoming pathogens by performance of collective disease defences, including antiseptic behaviours such as grooming of pathogen-exposed colony members and removal of diseased brood. This suggests that ants detect pathogens even before but also after infection, which has enormous evolutionary advantages at the colony level. My work on ants revealed that tactile pathogen cues are insufficient to trigger these responses, making chemical cues likely candidates. Moreover, pathogens seem to emit volatiles detectable by termites and honeybees, and ants possess a similarly sensitive olfactory system used in e.g. nestmate recognition and even have over-proportionally many olfactory receptor genes. I here aim to identify and characterize the nature and origin of cues that elicit collective antiseptic behaviours in ants, by combining behavioural observations, detailed chemical analyses and electrophysiological measures. I will further test how cue expression and perception depends on differences in caste, developmental stage and infection state, as well as genetic diversity. Using recent knowledge on the insect olfactory receptor system I seek to 1) understand the neurological processing of disease cues in ants and 2) develop a manipulative toolkit (e.g. RNAi) to suppress pathogen detection and thus performance of collective disease defences. This approach will enable direct assessment of the importance of a well-functioning olfactory sensory system in controlling disease outbreak at the colony level. The proposed project allows me to expand my research profile by using cutting-edge techniques in new disciplines to answer mechanistic questions of the evolution of social immunity
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.
- medical and health sciences health sciences infectious diseases
- natural sciences biological sciences zoology entomology apidology
You need to log in or register to use this function
We are sorry... an unexpected error occurred during execution.
You need to be authenticated. Your session might have expired.
Thank you for your feedback. You will soon receive an email to confirm the submission. If you have selected to be notified about the reporting status, you will also be contacted when the reporting status will change.
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
FP7-PEOPLE-2011-IEF
See other projects for this call
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Coordinator
3400 KLOSTERNEUBURG
Austria
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.