DOI: 10.5061/dryad.pg4f4qrvs
title: Data from: Variable viral loads and immune response in tan invasive ant’s native and introduced ranges

description: Aim: Pathogens can play an important role in biological invasions.
 Introduced populations may be particularly vulnerable to pathogens due to
 factors such as low genetic diversity and high population density.
 However, introduced populations that escape their natural pathogens may
 reallocate resources away from immunity and towards growth and
 reproduction. Interestingly, introduced ants have been suggested to have
 increased tolerance to new pathogens, contributing to their success as
 introduced species. In this study, we aimed to investigate whether
 introduced Argentine ant populations harbour different viral loads
 compared to native populations and if these differences were related to
 immunity-related gene expression. Location: The study was conducted across
 the native range of Argentine ants in Argentina and four introduced
 regions in California, France, Australia, and New Zealand. Methods: We
 used RT-qPCR to quantify viral loads and gene expression in the ants. We
 analysed 15 different potentially pathogenic viruses across the Argentine
 ant’s native and introduced ranges. Results: We found that five viruses,
 LhuPcV1, LhuPiLV1, LhuCV1, Kashmir Bee virus, and LHUV-1, presented high
 loads in Argentine ants compared to the other viruses we screened. We
 found a significant effect of range on viral infections: high viral loads
 were commonly found in ants from introduced populations, which also
 exhibited increased immune gene expression. We found highly significant
 correlations between viral loads and expression of immune and metabolic
 genes. However, these associations were not fully consistent across the
 studied regions, indicating the complexity of eco-immunological phenomena.
 Main conclusions: Our results suggest that introduced Argentine ant
 populations host different viral communities compared to native
 populations and that these differences are correlated with changes in
 immunity-related gene expression. The study highlights the complex role of
 pathogens in biological invasions and the importance of considering
 eco-immunological factors when assessing the impact of introduced species.
description: The study was conducted across the native range of Argentine ants
 in Argentina and four introduced regions in California, France, Australia,
 and New Zealand. In each region, worker ants were collected from up to
 four different sites. We used RT-qPCR to quantify viral loads and gene
 expression in the ants. We analysed 15 different potentially pathogenic
 viruses across the Argentine ant’s native and introduced ranges.
description: # Variable viral loads and immune response in tan invasive ant’s native
 and introduced ranges Dataset DOI:
 [10.5061/dryad.pg4f4qrvs](10.5061/dryad.pg4f4qrvs) ## Description of the
 data and file structure We collected qPCR data for 15 viruses and 21
 immune genes in Argentine ant populations in their native range in
 Argentina as well as in the introduced range in California, Europe,
 Australia and Aotearoa/New Zealand. ### Files and variables #### File:
 samples\_AA\_viruses\_immunity.csv **Description:** Information on
 individual samples included in the study ##### Variables *
 "Sample" is a unique sample identifying number *
 "Country" is the country of origin (AR for Argentina, CA for
 California, EU for France, AU for Australia, NZ for Aotearoa/New Zealand)
 * "Site" is the collection site * "Ants" is the number
 of worker ants constituting each sample * "Subcolony" is the
 experimental colony ID from which the sample was taken from *
 "Plate" is the TaqMan array card ID used to run qPCR assays ####
 File: Target\_details.csv **Description:** Information on the qPCR target
 characteristics ##### Variables * "TargetName" is the name of
 the qPCR target used in the R script * "Target" are the targets
 names in plot-friendly format * "TargetType" refers to the type
 of target (e.g. immune gene, virus, bacteria) * "Family" and
 "Group" refers to more specific characteristics of each target
 (e.g. immune pathway or microbe type) #### File: long\_baseline.csv
 **Description:** Raw results of the qPCR assays ##### Variables *
 "SampleName" is unique sample identifier *
 "TargetName" is the qPCR assay target *
 "MeanEquivalentCq" is the Cq value ## Code/software #### File:
 AA\_viruses\_immunity\_pub.R **Description:** R script deposited on the
 Zenodo repository, following the same section structure as the Results
 section of the manuscript. Packages required: "ggplot2";
 "gplots"; "gridExtra"; "pgirmess";
 "RVAideMemoire"; "car"; "ade4";
 "factoextra"; "nlme"; "vegan";
 "multcomp"; "digest"; "ggpubr";
 "egg"; "cowplot"; "viridis";
 "PerformanceAnalytics"; "reshape2"; "lme4";
 "lmerTest"; "MuMIn"; "FSA";
 "dplyr"; "pheatmap"; "RColorBrewer";
 "reshape2"; "reshape"; "vegan";
 "cowplot"; "BiodiversityR"; "ggVennDiagram";
 "factoextra"; "ggmap"; "ggsn";
 "raster"; "mixOmics"; "plyr";
 "colorspace"; "pairwiseAdonis";
 "reporttools"