| Title: | Impact of a juvenile hormone analogue on the anatomy and the frontal gland secretion of Prorhinotermes simplex (Isoptera: Rhinotermitidae) |
| Author(s): | Sobotnik J; Hanus R; Piskorski R; Urbanova K; Wimmer Z; Weyda F; Vytiskova B; Sillam-Dusses D; |
| Address: | "Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Infochemicals Research Team, Flemingovo nam. 2, 166 10 Praha, Czech Republic" |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.jinsphys.2009.09.004 |
| ISSN/ISBN: | 1879-1611 (Electronic) 0022-1910 (Linking) |
| Abstract: | "In termites, juvenile hormone plays a key role in soldier differentiation. To better understand the evolutionary origin of the soldiers, we studied the external and inner morphology of pseudergate-soldier intercastes and neotenic-soldier intercastes formed artificially by the application of juvenile hormone analogue in Prorhinotermes simplex. A majority of these intercastes had a soldier phenotype, whereas the inner anatomy had an intermediary form between two castes or a form specific to intercastes. Our experiments showed that traits of neotenics and soldiers can be shared by the same individuals, although such individuals do not exist naturally in P. simplex, and they have not been reported in other species but in some Termopsidae. Our results reinforce the hypothesis that soldiers may have emerged from soldier neotenics during the evolution of termites" |
| Keywords: | Animals *Biological Evolution Bodily Secretions/*chemistry Epidermis/anatomy & histology Fat Body/anatomy & histology Female Head/anatomy & histology Isoptera/anatomy & histology/chemistry/*physiology Juvenile Hormones Male Oviparity *Social Dominance; |
| Notes: | "MedlineSobotnik, Jan Hanus, Robert Piskorski, Rafal Urbanova, Klara Wimmer, Zdenek Weyda, Frantisek Vytiskova, Blahoslava Sillam-Dusses, David eng Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't England 2009/09/23 J Insect Physiol. 2010 Jan; 56(1):65-72. doi: 10.1016/j.jinsphys.2009.09.004" |
