Storage proteins in ants during development and colony founding

Wheeler, Diana E.; Buck, N. A.

doi:10.1016/0022-1910(95)00028-s

Cited by 60 publications

(51 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…Evidence in honey bees (78) and Polistes wasps (79) suggests that hexamerins may be important in caste determination in these social insect lineages, and in ants, hexamerins appear to be have been important in the evolution of elaborated life history characteristics (80).…”

Section: Metabolism and Nutritionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Molecular evolutionary analyses of insect societies

Fischman

Woodard

Robinson

2011

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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The social insects live in extraordinarily complex and cohesive societies, where many individuals sacrifice their personal reproduction to become helpers in the colony. Identifying adaptive molecular changes involved in eusocial evolution in insects is important for understanding the mechanisms underlying transitions from solitary to social living, as well as the maintenance and elaboration of social life. Here, we review recent advances made in this area of research in several insect groups: the ants, bees, wasps, and termites. Drawing from whole-genome comparisons, candidate gene approaches, and a genome-scale comparative analysis of protein-coding sequence, we highlight novel insights gained for five major biological processes: chemical signaling, brain development and function, immunity, reproduction, and metabolism and nutrition. Lastly, we make comparisons across these diverse approaches and social insect lineages and discuss potential common themes of eusocial evolution, as well as challenges and prospects for future research in the field.comparative genomics | molecular evolution | social evolution | sociogenomics

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Section: Metabolism and Nutritionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Molecular evolutionary analyses of insect societies

Fischman

Woodard

Robinson

2011

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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“…1c, Table 2) -is directly attributable to the presence of extra queens. This is because the queens draw on their limited body reserves to produce the workers 16 ; multiple queens that contribute to egg-laying 15,28 produce more workers [13][14][15] and, in some cases, produce them earlier 14,15 . The number of first workers directly determines colony success at brood raiding, as shown in an experiment in which adding workers to one-queen colonies shortly before brood raiding increases their success 29 .…”

Section: Benefits Of Cooperation: Increased Colony Survivalmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…1b) 16 . These reserves are used to feed the developing workers, either by regurgitation or with trophic eggs (non-viable eggs produced specifically to feed the brood) 16,17 . When workers emerge, they forage, which ends the stage when brood production is directly dependent on the body reserves of the queens.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Cooperation among unrelated individuals: the ant foundress case

Bernasconi

Strassmann

1999

Trends in Ecology & Evolution

204

176

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“…In most ant species, colonies are founded after nuptial £ight by queens without worker assistance. The queen seals herself in a burrow and rears her ¢rst workers entirely on metabolic energy stores (Keller & Passera 1989;Wheeler & Buck 1995). For instance in the ¢re ant, Solenopsis invicta, queens lose about 50% of their initial mass from the beginning of colony founding to worker eclosion three weeks later (Tschinkel 1993;Bernasconi & Keller 1996).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Unequal partitioning of reproduction and investment between cooperating queens in the fire ant,Solenopsis invicta, as revealed by microsatellites

Bernasconi

Krieger

Keller

1997

Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B

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Social insects provide ideal systems for investigating how kinship and ecological factors a¡ect cooperation and con£ict. In many ant species, unrelated queens cooperate to initiate new colonies. However, ¢ghts between queens break out after the eclosion of the ¢rst workers, leading to the death of all but one queen. Queens within associations potentially face a trade-o¡. On one hand, a queen should restrain her investment in brood production and care if this helps her to maintain ¢ghting ability. On the other hand, a queen may bene¢t by increasing her contribution to brood production if having more daughter workers than her cofoundresses enhances her chances of taking over the colony. Increased investment is also bene¢cial because a large brood enhances colony survival. Using microsatellites, we determined the maternity of workers (adults and larvae) at the time of queen execution in the ¢re ant, Solenopsis invicta. Di¡erential mass loss by initially equal nestmates a¡ected survival, with the queen losing less body mass being more likely to survive. Surprisingly, the queen which lost less body mass, that is the one which provided the lowest energy investment, was the one which achieved higher maternity. A control experiment indicated that interactions among queens are responsible for this di¡erential partitioning of reproductive and investment tasks between nestmates. The ¢nding that the queen most likely to win the ¢ghts is the one with above-average maternity may explain why workers apparently do not attempt to in£uence the outcome of ¢ghts.

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Storage proteins in ants during development and colony founding

Cited by 60 publications

References 19 publications

Molecular evolutionary analyses of insect societies

Molecular evolutionary analyses of insect societies

Cooperation among unrelated individuals: the ant foundress case

Unequal partitioning of reproduction and investment between cooperating queens in the fire ant,Solenopsis invicta, as revealed by microsatellites

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