| Title: | "Do Bumble Bee, Bombus impatiens, Queens Signal their Reproductive and Mating Status to their Workers?" |
| Author(s): | Amsalem E; Padilla M; Schreiber PM; Altman NS; Hefetz A; Grozinger CM; |
| Address: | "Department of Entomology, Center for Pollinator Research, Center for Chemical Ecology, Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, 16802, USA. eua6@psu.edu. Department of Entomology, Center for Pollinator Research, Center for Chemical Ecology, Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, 16802, USA. Department of Statistics, Huck Institute of Life Sciences, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, 16802, USA. Department of Zoology, George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel" |
| DOI: | 10.1007/s10886-017-0858-4 |
| ISSN/ISBN: | 1573-1561 (Electronic) 0098-0331 (Linking) |
| Abstract: | "Reproduction in social insect societies reflects a delicate balance between cooperation and conflict over offspring production, and worker reproduction is widespread even in species showing strong reproductive skew in favor of the queen. To navigate these conflicts, workers are predicted to develop the means to estimate the queen's fecundity - potentially through behavioral and/or chemical cues - and to adjust their reproduction to maximize their fitness. Here, we introduced bumble bee, Bombus impatiens, workers to queens of different mating and reproductive status and examined worker reproduction and expression levels of two genes which were previously shown to be sensitive to the presence of the queen, vitellogenin and Kruppel-homolog 1. We further explored whether the queen's chemical secretion alone is sufficient to regulate worker reproduction, aggression and gene expression. We found that worker ovary activation was inhibited only in the presence of egg-laying queens, regardless of their mating status. Workers reared in the presence of newly-mated queens showed intermediate vitellogenin expression levels relative to workers reared with mated egg-laying and virgin queens. However, none of the whole-body chemical extracts of any of the queen treatment groups affected ovary activation, aggressive behavior, or gene expression in workers. Our findings indicate that only the presence of a freely-behaving, egg-laying queen can fully inhibit worker reproduction. It remains to be determined if workers detect differences in queen mating status and fecundity through differences in the queens' behavior alone or through the queen's behavior in concert with fertility signals" |
| Keywords: | "Aggression Animals Bees/*chemistry/*physiology Behavior, Animal Female Fertility Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry Gene Expression Kruppel-Like Transcription Factors/genetics Male Ovary/chemistry/metabolism *Oviposition Reproduction Sex Attractants/che;" |
| Notes: | "MedlineAmsalem, Etya Padilla, Mario Schreiber, Paul M Altman, Naomi S Hefetz, Abraham Grozinger, Christina M eng 2017/06/26 J Chem Ecol. 2017 Jun; 43(6):563-572. doi: 10.1007/s10886-017-0858-4. Epub 2017 Jun 24" |
