Cooperation among unrelated ant queens provides persistent growth and survival benefits during colony ontogeny

Abstract The fitness consequences of cooperation can vary across an organism’s lifespan. For non-kin groups, especially, social advantages must balance intrinsic costs of cooperating with non-relatives. In this study, we asked how challenging life history stages can promote stable, long-term allianc...

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Autores principales:	Madeleine M. Ostwald, Xiaohui Guo, Tyler Wong, Armon Malaekeh, Jon F. Harrison, Jennifer H. Fewell
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Nature Portfolio 2021
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/bf39ac933c754a8ea2d1d5478f6f623c
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:bf39ac933c754a8ea2d1d5478f6f623c2021-12-02T14:26:16ZCooperation among unrelated ant queens provides persistent growth and survival benefits during colony ontogeny10.1038/s41598-021-87797-52045-2322https://doaj.org/article/bf39ac933c754a8ea2d1d5478f6f623c2021-04-01T00:00:00Zhttps://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-87797-5https://doaj.org/toc/2045-2322Abstract The fitness consequences of cooperation can vary across an organism’s lifespan. For non-kin groups, especially, social advantages must balance intrinsic costs of cooperating with non-relatives. In this study, we asked how challenging life history stages can promote stable, long-term alliances among unrelated ant queens. We reared single- and multi-queen colonies of the primary polygynous harvester ant, Pogonomyrmex californicus, from founding through the first ten months of colony growth, when groups face high mortality risks. We found that colonies founded by multiple, unrelated queens experienced significant survival and growth advantages that outlasted the colony founding period. Multi-queen colonies experienced lower mortality than single-queen colonies, and queens in groups experienced lower mortality than solitary queens. Further, multi-queen colonies produced workers at a faster rate than did single-queen colonies, even while experiencing lower per-queen worker production costs. Additionally, we characterized ontogenetic changes in the organization of labor, and observed increasing and decreasing task performance diversity by workers and queens, respectively, as colonies grew. This dynamic task allocation likely reflects a response to the changing role of queens as they are increasingly able to delegate risky and costly tasks to an expanding workforce. Faster worker production in multi-queen colonies may beneficially accelerate this behavioral transition from a vulnerable parent–offspring group to a stable, growing colony. These combined benefits of cooperation may facilitate the retention of multiple unrelated queens in mature colonies despite direct fitness costs, providing insight into the evolutionary drivers of stable associations between unrelated individuals.Madeleine M. OstwaldXiaohui GuoTyler WongArmon MalaekehJon F. HarrisonJennifer H. FewellNature PortfolioarticleMedicineRScienceQENScientific Reports, Vol 11, Iss 1, Pp 1-10 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Madeleine M. Ostwald Xiaohui Guo Tyler Wong Armon Malaekeh Jon F. Harrison Jennifer H. Fewell Cooperation among unrelated ant queens provides persistent growth and survival benefits during colony ontogeny
description	Abstract The fitness consequences of cooperation can vary across an organism’s lifespan. For non-kin groups, especially, social advantages must balance intrinsic costs of cooperating with non-relatives. In this study, we asked how challenging life history stages can promote stable, long-term alliances among unrelated ant queens. We reared single- and multi-queen colonies of the primary polygynous harvester ant, Pogonomyrmex californicus, from founding through the first ten months of colony growth, when groups face high mortality risks. We found that colonies founded by multiple, unrelated queens experienced significant survival and growth advantages that outlasted the colony founding period. Multi-queen colonies experienced lower mortality than single-queen colonies, and queens in groups experienced lower mortality than solitary queens. Further, multi-queen colonies produced workers at a faster rate than did single-queen colonies, even while experiencing lower per-queen worker production costs. Additionally, we characterized ontogenetic changes in the organization of labor, and observed increasing and decreasing task performance diversity by workers and queens, respectively, as colonies grew. This dynamic task allocation likely reflects a response to the changing role of queens as they are increasingly able to delegate risky and costly tasks to an expanding workforce. Faster worker production in multi-queen colonies may beneficially accelerate this behavioral transition from a vulnerable parent–offspring group to a stable, growing colony. These combined benefits of cooperation may facilitate the retention of multiple unrelated queens in mature colonies despite direct fitness costs, providing insight into the evolutionary drivers of stable associations between unrelated individuals.
format	article
author	Madeleine M. Ostwald Xiaohui Guo Tyler Wong Armon Malaekeh Jon F. Harrison Jennifer H. Fewell
author_facet	Madeleine M. Ostwald Xiaohui Guo Tyler Wong Armon Malaekeh Jon F. Harrison Jennifer H. Fewell
author_sort	Madeleine M. Ostwald
title	Cooperation among unrelated ant queens provides persistent growth and survival benefits during colony ontogeny
title_short	Cooperation among unrelated ant queens provides persistent growth and survival benefits during colony ontogeny
title_full	Cooperation among unrelated ant queens provides persistent growth and survival benefits during colony ontogeny
title_fullStr	Cooperation among unrelated ant queens provides persistent growth and survival benefits during colony ontogeny
title_full_unstemmed	Cooperation among unrelated ant queens provides persistent growth and survival benefits during colony ontogeny
title_sort	cooperation among unrelated ant queens provides persistent growth and survival benefits during colony ontogeny
publisher	Nature Portfolio
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/bf39ac933c754a8ea2d1d5478f6f623c
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Cooperation among unrelated ant queens provides persistent growth and survival benefits during colony ontogeny

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