Descrizione del progetto
Colmare le lacune nella comprensione dell’immunità sociale: il caso delle termiti
Le termiti impiegano svariati comportamenti sociali per difendere le proprie colonie dalla malattia. Quando individuano un compagno di nido malato, le singole termiti decidono se prendersene cura o ucciderlo in modo da eliminare la possibilità di diffusione dell’infezione; tuttavia, si sa poco in merito ai fattori comportamentali e immunologici sottostanti a tale processo. Colmare questa lacuna di conoscenza è l’obiettivo del progetto CareKill del programma di azioni Marie Skłodowska-Curie (MSCA), che intende portare alla luce il ruolo svolto dalla dose di patogeni e dalla fase dell’infezione nella regolazione del passaggio dalla cura all’uccisione. Il progetto esaminerà ulteriormente i tipi di geni coinvolti nel processo decisionale e il modo in cui la memoria comportamentale e immunitaria si ripercuotono sulla scelta tra assistenza e uccisione nel corso dei successivi incontri con compagni di nido malati.
Obiettivo
As epitomized by epidemics and pandemics throughout human history, including the ongoing SARS CoV-2 pandemic, social life carries risks of substantial and rapid spread of infectious diseases. Termites living in pathogen-rich environments have evolved remarkably robust social immunity mitigation strategies that effectively prevent diseases from spreading within colonies. Individual termites carefully balance whether to care for a sick nestmate and save the colony worker resources, or kill the sick nestmate to remove the risk of an infection spreading. The behavioural and immunological factors driving this dichotomy remain obscure. The CareKill action will close major gaps in our understanding the role of pathogen dose and infection stage in governing the switch from care to kill, what genes are involved in decision-making (immune pathways, neural networks, genes involved in stress), and how behavioural and immune memory impact care-kill decision making during subsequent encounters with sick nestmates. The action will capitalise on my extensive background in behavioural ecology and social immunity in termites, and integrate state-of-the-art pathogen load quantification and global gene expression analyses on actively caretaking or killing focal termites to establish if social immune memory is key to effective long-term reduction of disease risks. In doing so, this work explores novel concepts and hypotheses to close important gaps in our understanding of social immunity. CareKill will benefit from synergies of ongoing chemical ecology research in the focal termite species by my host, Michael Poulsen (University of Copenhagen), who will provide training in combining molecular techniques and termite ecology. CareKill will provide fundamental novel insights into the adaptive value of mitigation strategies that are essential to curb the spread of diseases and that allow for long-lived animal societies to sustain in the face of pathogenic threats.
Campo scientifico
- medical and health scienceshealth sciencesinfectious diseases
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesecology
- medical and health scienceshealth sciencespublic healthepidemiologypandemics
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesbiological behavioural sciencesbehavioural ecology
- natural sciencescomputer and information sciencesartificial intelligencecomputational intelligence
Programma(i)
- HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Main Programme
Meccanismo di finanziamento
HORIZON-AG-UN - HORIZON Unit GrantCoordinatore
1165 Kobenhavn
Danimarca