The effects of juvenile hormone on Lasius niger reproduction

Pamminger, Tobias; Buttstedt, Anja; Norman, Victoria C; Schierhorn, Angelika; Botías, Cristina; Jones, Julia C.; Basley, Kate; Hughes, William O. H.

doi:10.1016/j.jinsphys.2016.09.004

Cited by 25 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…Unstained Protein Marker, Broad Range (10–200 kDa) (New England Biolabs) was used as protein marker, and gels were stained with Coomassie Brilliant Blue G250 (Neuhoff, Arold, Taube, & Ehrhardt, ). Protein bands cut from SDS‐PA gels were identified via mass spectrometry (ESI‐QTOF‐MS/MS) according to Pamminger et al ().…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The rise and fall of major royal jelly proteins during a honeybee (Apis mellifera) workers' life

Dobritzsch

Aumer

Fuszard

et al. 2019

Ecology and Evolution

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The genome of the western honeybee ( Apis mellifera ) harbors nine transcribed major royal jelly protein genes ( mrjp1‐9 ) which originate from a single‐copy precursor via gene duplication. The first MRJP was identified in royal jelly, a secretion of the bees' hypopharyngeal glands that is used by young worker bees, called nurses, to feed developing larvae. Thus, MRJPs are frequently assumed to mainly have functions for developing bee larvae and to be expressed in the food glands of nurse bees. In‐depth knowledge on caste‐ and age‐specific role and abundance of MRJPs is missing. We here show, using combined quantitative real‐time PCR with quantitative mass spectrometry, that expression and protein amount of mrjp1‐5 and mrjp7 show an age‐dependent pattern in worker's hypopharyngeal glands as well as in brains, albeit lower relative abundance in brains than in glands. Expression increases after hatching until the nurse bee period and is followed by a decrease in older workers that forage for plant products. Mrjp6 expression deviates considerably from the expression profiles of the other mrjps , does not significantly vary in the brain, and shows its highest expression in the hypopharyngeal glands during the forager period. Furthermore, it is the only mrjp of which transcript abundance does not correlate with protein amount. Mrjp8 and mrjp9 show, compared to the other mrjps, a very low expression in both tissues. Albeit mrjp8 mRNA was detected via qPCR, the protein was not quantified in any of the tissues. Due to the occurrence of MRJP8 and MRJP9 in other body parts of the bees, for example, the venom gland, they might not have a hypopharyngeal gland‐ or brain‐specific function but rather functions in other tissues. Thus, mrjp1‐7 but not mrjp8 and mrjp9 might be involved in the regulation of phenotypic plasticity and age polyethism in worker honeybees.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The rise and fall of major royal jelly proteins during a honeybee (Apis mellifera) workers' life

Dobritzsch

Aumer

Fuszard

et al. 2019

Ecology and Evolution

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“…Moreover, it is still unclear to what extent functional annotations of and conclusions based on the honey bee Vg can be expanded to other social Hymenoptera such as ants, bumble bees, and wasps. Firstly, in contrast to honey bees, the association between Vg and JH is less clear in other social insects, suggesting fundamental changes in the underlying networks regulating behavior, e.g., in some ants [ 67 – 69 ]. Secondly, Vg underwent several duplication events followed by diversification and subfunctionalization in ants and termites, potentially resulting in different Vg orthologs taking over different functions in physiology—namely, fertility and aging—and behavior, including division of labor [ 46 , 70 – 75 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Vitellogenin-like A–associated shifts in social cue responsiveness regulate behavioral task specialization in an ant

2018

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Division of labor and task specialization explain the success of human and insect societies. Social insect colonies are characterized by division of labor, with workers specializing in brood care early and foraging later in life. Theory posits that this task switching requires shifts in responsiveness to task-related cues, yet experimental evidence is weak. Here, we show that a Vitellogenin (Vg) ortholog identified in an RNAseq study on the ant T. longispinosus is involved in this process: using phylogenetic analyses of Vg and Vg-like genes, we firstly show that this candidate gene does not cluster with the intensively studied honey bee Vg but falls into a separate Vg-like A cluster. Secondly, an experimental knockdown of Vg-like A in the fat body caused a reduction in brood care and an increase in nestmate care in young ant workers. Nestmate care is normally exhibited by older workers. We demonstrate experimentally that this task switch is at least partly based on Vg-like A–associated shifts in responsiveness from brood to worker cues. We thus reveal a novel mechanism leading to early behavioral maturation via changes in social cue responsiveness mediated by Vg-like A and associated pathways, which proximately play a role in regulating division of labor.

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“…, , Pamminger et al. ,b). Historically the JH–vitellogenin (vg) regulatory axis has been suggested to regulate caste transitions in the honeybee (Robinson and Vargo ), and JH is likely involved in regulating worker DOL in at least some ant species (Norman and Hughes ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Testing the reproductive groundplan hypothesis in ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)

Pamminger

Hughes

2016

Evolution

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The evolution of complex societies with obligate reproductive division of labor represents one of the major transitions in evolution. In such societies, functionally sterile individuals (workers) perform many of fitness-relevant behaviors including allomaternal ones, without getting any direct fitness benefits. The question of how such worker division of labor has evolved remains controversial. The reproductive groundplan hypothesis (RGPH) offers a powerful proximate explanation for this evolutionary leap. The RGPH argues that the conserved genetic and endocrinological networks regulating fitness-relevant behavior (e g. foraging and brood care) in their solitary ancestors have become decoupled from actual reproduction in the worker caste and now generate worker behavioral phenotypes. However, the empirical support for this hypothesis remains limited to a handful of species making its general validity uncertain. In this study, we combine data from the literature with targeted sampling of key species and apply phylogenetically controlled comparative analysis to investigate if the key prediction of the RGPH, namely an association between allomaternal behavior and an allomaternal physiological state holds in the largest and most species-rich clade of social insects, the ants. Our findings clearly support the RPGH as a general framework to understand the evolution of the worker caste and shed light on one of the major transition in evolutionary history.

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The effects of juvenile hormone on Lasius niger reproduction

Cited by 25 publications

References 35 publications

The rise and fall of major royal jelly proteins during a honeybee (Apis mellifera) workers' life

The rise and fall of major royal jelly proteins during a honeybee (Apis mellifera) workers' life

Vitellogenin-like A–associated shifts in social cue responsiveness regulate behavioral task specialization in an ant

Testing the reproductive groundplan hypothesis in ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)

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