Access this dataset on Dryad [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.g4f4qrg1c]

Files in this dataset include:

• Main figures (Figures 1- 4): As presented in the manuscript
• Supplementary figures (Figs.S1-S18): As presented in the supplementary material
• Supplementary tables (Table S1- Table S7): As presented in the supplementary material
• Data files (Panchal_et_al_Data S1-S6.xlsx): Raw and processed data supporting analyses in the manuscript and is uploaded and available on Dryad.

•  Data_S7.pdf: Raw data in the form of photographs of all behavioral assay plates uploaded and available on Zenodo.

*Note: Main figures (Figures 1- 4), all the supplemental files including supplementary figures (Figs. S1-S18), supplementary tables (Table S1- Table S7) and Data_S7.pdf are available on Zenodo. 

This README file describes the raw data files (Panchal_et_al_Data_S1-S6.xlsx) available on Dryad and (Data_S7.pdf) available on Zenodo. We have submitted our raw data: Area of comb scraped (%) for Figure 1C (Panchal_et_al_Data_S1.xlsx), Amount of soil bolus added for Figure 2C (Panchal_et_al_Data_S2.xlsx), Amount of soil bolus added for Figure 3C (Panchal_et_al_Data_S3.xlsx), Amount of soil bolus added for Figure S17 (Panchal_et_al_Data_S4.xlsx), microbiome of soil boluses shown in Figure 4B (Panchal_et_al_Data_S5.xlsx) and mycobiome of soil boluses shown in Figure 4A (Panchal_et_al_Data_S6.xlsx).

Description of the data and file structure

Panchal_et_al_Data_S1.xlsx

*This file contains raw data for Figure 1C of the manuscript

Data point: Individual assay plate

FC: Fresh comb

FC+P: Fresh comb with Pseudoxylaria

'FC' are the fresh fungus combs collected from the termite colonies and incubated in the lab to naturally grow the weedy fungus, Pseudoxylaria on them. 'FC+P' are the fungus combs with Pseudoxylaria tuft placed on them. A detailed methodology of fungus comb collection, incubation and growth of Pseudoxylaria is provided in the materials and methods to the main article under the section 'Collection of Combs, Termites and Setting up the Behavioral assays'. A pictorial representation of this methodology is given in Figure S2 of the manuscript.

Area of comb scraped (%) on FC: Area of comb scraped by workers on fresh comb

Area of comb scraped (%) on FC+P: Area of comb scraped by workers on fresh comb with Pseudoxylaria

Panchal_et_al_Data_S2.xlsx

*This file contains raw data for Figure 2C of the manuscript

Data point: Individual assay plate

FC: Fresh comb

IC: Infected comb

'FC' are the fresh fungus combs collected from the termite colonies and incubated in the lab to naturally grow the weedy fungus, Pseudoxylaria on them. 'IC' are the severely infected combs with Pseudoxylaria. A detailed methodology of fungus comb collection, incubation and growth of Pseudoxylaria is provided in the materials and methods to the main article under the section 'Collection of Combs, Termites and Setting up the Behavioral assays'. A pictorial representation of this methodology is given in Figure S2 of the manuscript.

Amount of soil boluses added (gram) on FC: Amount of soil boluses added by the workers on fresh comb

Amount of soil boluses added (gram) on IC: Amount of soil boluses added by the workers on infected comb

Outcome of behavioral response: Outcomes of worker behavior

·      Complete encasement: Infected comb entirely encased with soil boluses

·      Partial encasement: Some portions of the infected comb encased with soil boluses

·      No behavioral response: No discernible response from workers

Panchal_et_al_Data_S3.xlsx

*This file contains raw data for Figure 3C of the manuscript

Data point: Individual assay plate

FC: Fresh comb

FC+IC: Fresh comb glued to Pseudoxylaria infected comb

'FC' are the fresh fungus combs collected from the termite colonies and incubated in the lab to naturally grow the weedy fungus, Pseudoxylaria on them. 'FC+IC' are the fresh fungus comb glued to Pseudoxylaria infected comb. A detailed methodology of fungus comb collection, incubation and growth of Pseudoxylaria is provided in the materials and methods to the main article under the section 'Collection of Combs, Termites and Setting up the Behavioral assays'. A pictorial representation of this methodology is given in Figure S2 of the manuscript.

Amount of soil bolus added (gram) on FC: Amount of soil bolus added by the workers on fresh comb

Amount of soil bolus added (gram) on FC+IC: Amount of soil bolus added by the workers on fresh comb glued to Pseudoxylaria infected comb

Outcome of behavioral response: Outcomes of worker behavior

·      Complete separation with complete encasement: Complete separation of the glued comb pieces and complete encasement of the infected comb

·      Complete separation with partial encasement: Complete separation of the glued comb pieces but partial encasement of the infected comb

·      Partial separation with partial encasement: Partial separation of the glued comb pieces and partial encasement of the infected comb

·      Complete separation but no encasement: Complete separation of the glued comb pieces but no encasement of the infected comb

Panchal_et_al_Data_S4.xlsx

*This file contains raw data for Figure S17C of the manuscript

Data point: Individual assay plate

FC: Fresh comb

FC+FC: Fresh comb glued to another fresh comb

'FC' are the fresh fungus combs collected from the termite colonies. 'FC+FC' is the fresh fungus comb glued to another fresh comb.* *A detailed methodology of fungus comb collection and incubation is provided in the materials and methods to the main article under the section 'Collection of Combs, Termites and Setting up the Behavioral assays'. A pictorial representation of this methodology is given in Figure S2 of the manuscript.

Amount of soil bolus added (gram) on FC: Amount of soil bolus added by the workers on fresh comb

Amount of soil boluses added (gram) on FC+FC: Amount of soil bolus added by the workers on the two fresh combs glued together

Outcome of behavioral response: Outcomes of worker behavior

·      Complete separation: Complete separation of the two fresh combs glued together

·      Partial separation: Partial separation of the two fresh combs glued together

·      No separation: No discernible response from the workers

Panchal_et_al_Data_S5.xlsx

*This file contains raw data for Figure 4B of the manuscript

*Data represents the taxonomic distribution and relative abundance of the bacterial OTUs (microbiome) present within the soil boluses for all the samples identified through Nanopore sequencing. A detailed methodology for sample preparation and sequencing has been provided in the supplementary text to the main article under the sections ‘Library preparation for Nanopore Sequencing’ and ‘Nanopore Sequence data generation and identification of Operational Taxonomic Units (OTUs)’

OTU: Operational Taxonomic Unit

Domain: OTU at taxonomic rank ‘Domain’

Phylum: OTU at taxonomic rank ‘Phylum’

Class: OTU at taxonomic rank ‘Class’

Order: OTU at taxonomic rank ‘Order’

Family: OTU at taxonomic rank ‘Family’

Genus: OTU at taxonomic rank ‘Genus’

Mound SC3 Replicate 1: Sample 1

Mound SC3 Replicate 2: Sample 2

Mound SC4 Replicate 1: Sample 3

Mound SC4 Replicate 2: Sample 4

Mound SC4 Replicate 3: Sample 5

Mound HC Replicate 1: Sample 6

Mound HC Replicate 2: Sample 7

*Numeric values denote the relative abundance of the bacterial genera present across the samples

Panchal_et_al_Data_S6.xlsx

*This file contains raw data for Figure 4A of the manuscript

*Data represents the taxonomic distribution and relative abundance of the fungal OTUs (mycobiome) present within the soil boluses for all the samples identified through Nanopore sequencing. A detailed methodology for sample preparation and sequencing has been provided in the supplementary text to the main article under the sections ‘Library preparation for Nanopore Sequencing’ and ‘Nanopore Sequence data generation and identification of Operational Taxonomic Units (OTUs)’

OTU: Operational Taxonomic Unit

Phylum: OTU at taxonomic rank ‘Phylum’

Class: OTU at taxonomic rank ‘Class’

Order: OTU at taxonomic rank ‘Order’

Family: OTU at taxonomic rank ‘Family’

Genus: OTU at taxonomic rank ‘Genus’

Mound SC3: Sample 1

Mound SC4 Replicate 1: Sample 2

Mound SC4 Replicate 2: Sample 3

Mound HC Replicate 1: Sample 4

Mound HC Replicate 2: Sample 5

*Numeric values denote the relative abundance of the fungal genera present across the samples

Data_S7.pdf

*This file is available on Zenodo. However, the description of the data and file structure of Data_S7.pdf is provided here in this README file.

*Data_S7.pdf file represents all data points in the form of photographs of all assay plates for the three behavioral assays depicted in Figures 1B, 2B, 3B and S17B of the manuscript.

Data S7(i): Representation of all data points (photographs of all assay plates, N=57) of termite workers in response to introduced Pseudoxylaria tuft on the comb*

Data S7(ii): Representation of all data points (photographs of all assay plates, N=101) of termite workers in response to extensive Pseudoxylaria infections.

Data S7(iii): Representation of all data points (photographs of all assay plates, N=21) of major workers in saving healthy portions of the comb from Pseudoxylaria infections.

Data S7(iv): Representation of all data points (photographs of all assay plates, N=10) of termite workers in response to two fresh combs attached together.

Sharing/Access information

Other publicly accessible locations of the data:

Panchal_et_al_Data_S5.xlsx: Raw sequences generated from Nanopore are available at NCBI Sequence Read Archive (SRA) under BioProject PRJNA1119496 (BioSample accessions: SAMN41656945 - SAMN41656951)

Panchal_et_al_Data_S6.xlsx: Raw sequences generated from Nanopore are available at NCBI Sequence Read Archive (SRA) under BioProject PRJNA1119511(BioSample accessions: SAMN41657358 - SAMN41657362)

Data was derived from the following sources

All data was derived from experiments and analyses conducted by the authors, as described in the manuscript.