Social distancing is an effective way to prevent the spread of disease in societies, whereas infection elimination is a key element of organismal immunity. Here, we discuss how the study of social insects such as ants — which form a superorganism of unconditionally cooperative individuals and thus represent a level of organization that is intermediate between a classical society of individuals and an organism of cells — can help to determine common principles of disease defence across levels of organization.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Access Nature and 54 other Nature Portfolio journals
Get Nature+, our best-value online-access subscription
$29.99 / 30 days
cancel any time
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 print issues and online access
$209.00 per year
only $17.42 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
References
Stockmaier, S. et al. Infectious diseases and social distancing in nature. Science 371, eabc8881 (2021).
Stroeymeyt, N. et al. Social network plasticity decreases disease transmission in a eusocial insect. Science 362, 941–945 (2018).
Boomsma, J. J. & Gawne, R. Superorganismality and caste differentiation as points of no return: how the major evolutionary transitions were lost in translation. Biol. Rev. 93, 28–54 (2018).
Cremer, S. & Sixt, M. Analogies in the evolution of individual and social immunity. Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc. B 364, 129–142 (2009).
Pull, C. D. & McMahon, D. P. Superorganism immunity: a major transition in immune system evolution. Front. Ecol. Evol. https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2020.00186 (2020).
Pull, C. D. et al. Destructive disinfection of infected brood prevents systemic disease spread in ant colonies. eLife 7, e32073 (2018).
Heyman, Y., Shental, N., Brandis, A., Hefetz, A. & Feinerman, O. Ants regulate colony spatial organization using multiple chemical road-signs. Nat. Comm. 8, 15414 (2017).
Engelmann, B. & Massberg, S. Thrombosis as an intravascular effector of innate immunity. Nat. Rev. Immunol. 13, 34–45 (2013).
Schiller, M., Ben-Shaanan, T. L. & Rolls, A. Neuronal regulation of immunity: why, how and where? Nat. Rev. Immunol. 21, 20–36 (2021).
Kawagoe, K. et al. Epidemic dynamics in inhomogeneous populations and the role of superspreaders. Phys. Rev. Res. 3, 033283 (2021).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing interests.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Cremer, S., Sixt, M. Principles of disease defence in organisms, superorganisms and societies. Nat Rev Immunol 22, 713–714 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41577-022-00797-y
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41577-022-00797-y
