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Updated: Mar 24, 2026

High-Throughput Live Imaging of Microcolonies to Measure Heterogeneity in Growth and Gene Expression
Published on: April 18, 2021
Genetic diversity confers colony-level benefits due to individual immunity
Michael Simone-Finstrom1, Megan Walz2, David R Tarpy3
1Department of Entomology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695-7613, USA W. M. Keck Center for Behavioral Biology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695-7613, USA michael.simonefinstrom@ars.usda.gov.
Abstract:
Several costs and benefits arise as a consequence of eusociality and group-living. With increasing group size, spread of disease among nest-mates poses selective pressure on both individual immunity and group-level mechanisms of disease resistance (social immunity). Another factor known to influence colony-level expression of disease is intracolony genetic diversity, which in honeybees (Apis mellifera) is a direct function of the number of mates of the queen. Colonies headed by queens with higher mating numbers have less variable infections of decreased intensity, though the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. By pathogen-challenging larvae in vitro, we decoupled larval immune response from mechanisms of social immunity. Our results show that baseline immunity and degree of immune response do not vary with genetic diversity. However, intracolony variance in antimicrobial peptide production after pathogen challenge decreases with increasing genetic diversity. This reduction in variability of the larval immune response could drive the mitigation of disease observed in genetically diverse colonies.
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