scholarly journals Lifelong commitment to the wrong partner: hybridization in ants

2008 ◽  
Vol 363 (1505) ◽  
pp. 2891-2899 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heike Feldhaar ◽  
Susanne Foitzik ◽  
Jürgen Heinze
Keyword(s):  
Sex Determination ◽  
Social Insects ◽  
Sexual Conflict ◽  
Caste Differentiation ◽  
Morphological Similarity ◽  
Dead End ◽  
Lifelong Partner ◽  
Ant Males ◽  
Species Hybridization

The extraordinary lifelong partner commitment in social insects is expected to increase choosiness in both sexes and therefore to be associated with particularly low hybridization frequencies. Yet, more and more studies reveal that in many ant taxa hybrids are surprisingly common, with up to half of all female sexuals receiving sperm from allospecific males in extreme cases. In a few ant species, hybridization has led to the evolution of reproductively isolated new lineages with a bizarre system of genetic caste differentiation: colonies produce hybrid workers and pure-lineage female sexuals. This requires that colonies either contain multiple queens or that queens mate multiple times. In most other cases, hybridization appears to be an evolutionary dead end and fertile hybrid queens are rarely found. In such cases, haplodiploid sex determination appears to decrease the costs of mating with an allospecific male. As long as hybrid workers are viable, a cross-mated queen can partially rescue its fitness by producing males from unfertilized eggs. Mating with an allospecific partner may thus be an option for queens when conspecific mates are not available. The morphological similarity of most ant males, perhaps resulting from the lack of sexual conflict, may similarly contribute to the commonness of hybridization.

scholarly journals Among the shapeshifters: parasite-induced morphologies in ants (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) and their relevance within the EcoEvoDevo framework

EvoDevo ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alice Laciny
Keyword(s):  
Social Insects ◽  
Morphological Changes ◽  
Evolutionary Developmental Biology ◽  
Caste Differentiation ◽  
Natural Experiments ◽  
Evolutionary Mechanisms ◽  
Open Questions ◽  
Caste Evolution ◽  
High Level ◽  
Host Development

AbstractAs social insects, ants represent extremely interaction-rich biological systems shaped by tightly integrated social structures and constant mutual exchange with a multitude of internal and external environmental factors. Due to this high level of ecological interconnection, ant colonies can harbour a diverse array of parasites and pathogens, many of which are known to interfere with the delicate processes of ontogeny and caste differentiation and induce phenotypic changes in their hosts. Despite their often striking nature, parasite-induced changes to host development and morphology have hitherto been largely overlooked in the context of ecological evolutionary developmental biology (EcoEvoDevo). Parasitogenic morphologies in ants can, however, serve as “natural experiments” that may shed light on mechanisms and pathways relevant to host development, plasticity or robustness under environmental perturbations, colony-level effects and caste evolution. By assessing case studies of parasites causing morphological changes in their ant hosts, from the eighteenth century to current research, this review article presents a first overview of relevant host and parasite taxa. Hypotheses about the underlying developmental and evolutionary mechanisms, and open questions for further research are discussed. This will contribute towards highlighting the importance of parasites of social insects for both biological theory and empirical research and facilitate future interdisciplinary work at the interface of myrmecology, parasitology, and the EcoEvoDevo framework.

scholarly journals Dopamine regulates termite soldier differentiation through trophallactic behaviours

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 150574 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hajime Yaguchi ◽  
Takaya Inoue ◽  
Ken Sasaki ◽  
Kiyoto Maekawa
Keyword(s):  
Social Insects ◽  
Caste Differentiation ◽  
Multiple Roles ◽  
Intrinsic Factors ◽  
Termite Soldier ◽  
Species Specific ◽  
Incipient Colony ◽  
Soldier Differentiation ◽  
Gene Expression Levels

Caste polyphenism in social insects is regulated by social interactions among colony members. Trophallaxis is one of the most frequently observed interactions, but no studies have been conducted identifying the intrinsic factors involved in this behaviour and caste differentiation. Dopamine (DA) has multiple roles in the modulation of behaviours and physiology, and it produces species-specific behaviours in animals. Here, to verify the role of DA in termite soldier differentiation, we focused on the first soldier in an incipient colony of Zootermopsis nevadensis , which always differentiates from the oldest 3rd instar (No. 1 larva) via a presoldier. First, brain DA levels of the No. 1 larva at day 3 after its appearance were significantly higher than day 0. Second, DA synthesis gene expression levels were extraordinarily high in the No. 1 larva at day 0–1 after appearance. Finally, injection of a DA receptor antagonist into the No. 1 larva resulted in the inhibition of presoldier differentiation. Behavioural observations of the antagonist or control-injected larvae suggested that brain DA and signalling activity regulate the frequencies of trophallaxis from reproductives and presoldier differentiation. Because trophallaxis is a social behaviour frequently observed in natural conditions, the role of DA should be investigated in other social insects with frequent trophallactic and allogrooming behaviour.

Caste-biased Expression of fem and Amdsx Genes in Apis mellifera ligustica (Hymenoptera: Apidae)

Sociobiology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 68 (2) ◽  
pp. 5654
Author(s):  
Lu-Xia Pan ◽  
Fu-Ping Cheng ◽  
Zi-Long Wang
Keyword(s):  
Apis Mellifera ◽  
Sex Determination ◽  
Juvenile Hormone ◽  
Caste Differentiation ◽  
Apis Mellifera Ligustica

Sex determination and caste differentiation are two crucial processes for morphology building in honeybees. It is unclear whether there is an interaction between these two processes. Here, we investigated the expression of fem and Amdsx genes between female castes of honeybees. We found that the expression of fem and Amdsx is significantly higher in queens than in workers, and this expression was positively regulated by juvenile hormone (JH). Our results suggest that sex-determining genes fem and Amdsx are also involved in honeybee caste differentiation.

scholarly journals Worker caste determination in the army ant Eciton burchellii

2007 ◽  
Vol 3 (5) ◽  
pp. 513-516 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rodolfo Jaffé ◽  
Daniel J.C Kronauer ◽  
F Bernhard Kraus ◽  
Jacobus J Boomsma ◽  
Robin F.A Moritz
Keyword(s):  
Social Insects ◽  
Division Of Labour ◽  
Test System ◽  
Caste Differentiation ◽  
Caste Determination ◽  
Task Specialization ◽  
Army Ant ◽  
Genetic Components ◽  
Eciton Burchellii ◽  
Worker Caste

Elaborate division of labour has contributed significantly to the ecological success of social insects. Division of labour is achieved either by behavioural task specialization or by morphological specialization of colony members. In physical caste systems, the diet and rearing environment of developing larvae is known to determine the phenotype of adult individuals, but recent studies have shown that genetic components also contribute to the determination of worker caste. One of the most extreme cases of worker caste differentiation occurs in the army ant genus Eciton , where queens mate with many males and colonies are therefore composed of numerous full-sister subfamilies. This high intracolonial genetic diversity, in combination with the extreme caste polymorphism, provides an excellent test system for studying the extent to which caste determination is genetically controlled. Here we show that genetic effects contribute significantly to worker caste fate in Eciton burchellii . We conclude that the combination of polyandry and genetic variation for caste determination may have facilitated the evolution of worker caste diversity in some lineages of social insects.

Caste differentiation in social insects

1964 ◽  
Vol 12 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 389
Author(s):  
M.V. Brian
Keyword(s):  
Social Insects ◽  
Caste Differentiation

scholarly journals Seminal fluid compromises visual perception in honeybee queens reducing their survival during additional mating flights

eLife ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joanito Liberti ◽  
Julia Görner ◽  
Mat Welch ◽  
Ryan Dosselli ◽  
Morten Schiøtt ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Visual Perception ◽  
Social Insects ◽  
Sexual Conflict ◽  
Artificial Insemination ◽  
Seminal Fluid ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Field Trials ◽  
Mating Flights ◽  
Phototransduction Pathway

Queens of social insects make all mate-choice decisions on a single day, except in honeybees whose queens can conduct mating flights for several days even when already inseminated by a number of drones. Honeybees therefore appear to have a unique, evolutionarily derived form of sexual conflict: a queen’s decision to pursue risky additional mating flights is driven by later-life fitness gains from genetically more diverse worker-offspring but reduces paternity shares of the drones she already mated with. We used artificial insemination, RNA-sequencing and electroretinography to show that seminal fluid induces a decline in queen vision by perturbing the phototransduction pathway within 24–48 hr. Follow up field trials revealed that queens receiving seminal fluid flew two days earlier than sister queens inseminated with saline, and failed more often to return. These findings are consistent with seminal fluid components manipulating queen eyesight to reduce queen promiscuity across mating flights.

scholarly journals Clonal reproduction and genetic caste differences in a queen-polymorphic ant, Vollenhovia emeryi

2006 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 359-363 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kyohsuke Ohkawara ◽  
Megumi Nakayama ◽  
Atsumi Satoh ◽  
Andreas Trindl ◽  
Jürgen Heinze
Keyword(s):  
Sex Determination ◽  
Nuclear Dna ◽  
Caste Differentiation ◽  
Paternal Allele ◽  
Social Hymenoptera ◽  
Wasmannia Auropunctata ◽  
Genetic Caste Determination ◽  
Vollenhovia Emeryi ◽  
Almost All ◽  
Caste Differences

Most social Hymenoptera are characterized by simple haploid sex determination and environment-based caste differentiation. This appears to be strikingly different in the queen-polymorphic ant Vollenhovia emeryi . Almost all long- and short-winged queens from a population in Central Japan were homozygous at three microsatellite loci, whereas workers were mostly heterozygous, suggesting either a complex system of genetic caste determination or, more likely, the production of female sexuals from unfertilized eggs by thelytokous parthenogenesis and of workers from fertilized eggs. Furthermore, male genotypes were not compatible with those of the queens and had exclusively the paternal allele found in the sterile, heterozygous workers, probably because males are produced from fertilized eggs after the exclusion of maternal nuclear DNA as recently reported for Wasmannia auropunctata . The genus Vollenhovia might provide an interesting model system to trace the evolution of unusual caste and sex determination systems.

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