| Title: | "Chemical Variation among Castes, Female Life Stages and Populations of the Facultative Eusocial Sweat Bee Halictus rubicundus (Hymenoptera: Halictidae)" |
| Author(s): | Steitz I; Paxton RJ; Schulz S; Ayasse M; |
| Address: | "Institute of Evolutionary Ecology and Conservation Genomics, University of Ulm, Ulm, Germany. iris.steitz@gmx.net. General Zoology, Institute for Biology, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Halle (Saale), Germany. German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany. Departement of Life Sciences, Institute of Organic Chemistry, TU Braunschweig, Braunschweig, Germany. Institute of Evolutionary Ecology and Conservation Genomics, University of Ulm, Ulm, Germany" |
| DOI: | 10.1007/s10886-021-01267-w |
| ISSN/ISBN: | 1573-1561 (Electronic) 0098-0331 (Print) 0098-0331 (Linking) |
| Abstract: | "In eusocial insects, chemical communication is crucial for mediating many aspects of social activities, especially the regulation of reproduction. Though queen signals are known to decrease ovarian activation of workers in highly eusocial species, little is known about their evolution. In contrast, some primitively eusocial species are thought to control worker reproduction through physical aggression by the queen rather than via pheromones, suggesting the evolutionary establishment of chemical signals with more derived sociality. However, studies supporting this hypothesis are largely missing. Socially polymorphic halictid bees, such as Halictus rubicundus, with social and solitary populations in both Europe and North America, offer excellent opportunities to illuminate the evolution of caste-specific signals. Here we compared the chemical profiles of social and solitary populations from both continents and tested whether (i) population or social level affect chemical dissimilarity and whether (ii) caste-specific patterns reflect a conserved queen signal. Our results demonstrate unique odor profiles of European and North American populations, mainly due to different isomers of n-alkenes and macrocyclic lactones; chemical differences may be indicative of phylogeographic drift in odor profiles. We also found common compounds overproduced in queens compared to workers in both populations, indicating a potential conserved queen signal. However, North American populations have a lower caste-specific chemical dissimilarity than European populations which raises the question if both use different mechanisms of regulating reproductive division of labor. Therefore, our study gives new insights into the evolution of eusocial behavior and the role of chemical communication in the inhibition of reproduction" |
| Keywords: | "Animals Female Alkenes/chemistry/metabolism Animal Communication Bees Behavior, Animal Biological Evolution *Complex Mixtures/chemistry/metabolism Europe Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry Geography Isomerism Lactones/chemistry Macrocyclic Compounds/che;" |
| Notes: | "MedlineSteitz, Iris Paxton, Robert J Schulz, Stefan Ayasse, Manfred eng 2021/04/01 J Chem Ecol. 2021 May; 47(4-5):406-419. doi: 10.1007/s10886-021-01267-w. Epub 2021 Mar 31" |
