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Principles of disease defence in organisms, superorganisms and societies

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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.

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Fig. 1: Disease defence across organizational levels.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA), Klosterneuburg, Austria

    Sylvia Cremer & Michael Sixt

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  1. Sylvia Cremer
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  2. Michael Sixt
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Correspondence to Sylvia Cremer.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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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

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