| Title: | Dual effect of wasp queen pheromone in regulating insect sociality |
| Author(s): | Oi CA; Van Oystaeyen A; Caliari Oliveira R; Millar JG; Verstrepen KJ; van Zweden JS; Wenseleers T; |
| Address: | "Laboratory of Socioecology and Social Evolution, KU Leuven, Naamsestraat 59, 3000 Leuven, Belgium. Electronic address: cintiaakemi.oi@bio.kuleuven.be. Laboratory of Socioecology and Social Evolution, KU Leuven, Naamsestraat 59, 3000 Leuven, Belgium. Department of Entomology and Department of Chemistry, University of California, Riverside, Riverside, CA 92521, USA. VIB Laboratory for Systems Biology, KU Leuven, Gaston Geenslaan 1, 3001 Leuven, Belgium; CMPG Laboratory for Genetics and Genomics, KU Leuven, Gaston Geenslaan 1, 3001 Leuven, Belgium. Laboratory of Socioecology and Social Evolution, KU Leuven, Naamsestraat 59, 3000 Leuven, Belgium. Electronic address: tom.wenseleers@bio.kuleuven.be" |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.cub.2015.04.040 |
| ISSN/ISBN: | 1879-0445 (Electronic) 0960-9822 (Linking) |
| Abstract: | "Eusocial insects exhibit a remarkable reproductive division of labor between queens and largely sterile workers [1, 2]. Recently, it was shown that queens of diverse groups of social insects employ specific, evolutionarily conserved cuticular hydrocarbons to signal their presence and inhibit worker reproduction [3]. Workers also recognize and discriminate between eggs laid by the queen and those laid by workers, with the latter being destroyed by workers in a process known as 'policing' [4, 5]. Worker policing represents a classic example of a conflict-reducing mechanism, in which the reproductive monopoly of the queen is maintained through the selective destruction of worker-laid eggs [5, 6]. However, the exact signals used in worker policing have thus far remained elusive [5, 7]. Here, we show that in the common wasp, Vespula vulgaris, the pheromone that signals egg maternity and enables the workers to selectively destroy worker-laid eggs is in fact the same as one of the sterility-inducing queen signals that we identified earlier [3]. These results imply that queen pheromones regulate insect sociality in two distinct and complementary ways, i.e., by signaling the queen's presence and inhibiting worker reproduction, and by facilitating the recognition and policing of worker-laid eggs" |
| Keywords: | "Animals Behavior, Animal Eggs Female Male Pheromones/*physiology Social Behavior Wasps/*physiology Vespula vulgaris egg-marking pheromones queen pheromones social insects worker policing;" |
| Notes: | "MedlineOi, Cintia A Van Oystaeyen, Annette Caliari Oliveira, Ricardo Millar, Jocelyn G Verstrepen, Kevin J van Zweden, Jelle S Wenseleers, Tom eng Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't England 2015/05/12 Curr Biol. 2015 Jun 15; 25(12):1638-40. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2015.04.040. Epub 2015 May 7" |
