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120 results for “queen ant”
Data from: Experimental increase in fecundity causes upregulation of fecundity and body maintenance genes in the fat body of ant queens
<p>In most organisms, fecundity and longevity are negatively associated and the molecular regulation of these two life history traits is highly interconnected. In addition, nutrient intake often has opposing effects on lifespan and reproduction. In contrast to solitary insects, the main reproductive individual of social hymenopterans, the queen, is also the most long-lived. During development, queen larvae are well-nourished, but we are only beginning to understand the impact of nutrition on the queens' adult life and the molecular regulation and connectivity of fecundity and longevity. Here, we used two experimental manipulations to alter queen fecundity in the ant <em>Temnothorax rugatulus</em> and investigated associated changes in fat body gene expression. Egg removal triggered a fecundity increase, leading to expression changes in genes with functions in fecundity such as oogenesis and body maintenance. Dietary restriction lowered the egg production of queens and altered the expression of genes linked to autophagy, Toll signalling, cellular homeostasis, and immunity. Our study reveals that an experimental increase in fecundity causes the co-activation of reproduction and body maintenance mechanisms, shedding light on the molecular regulation of the link between longevity and fecundity in social insects.</p>
Thoracic endoskeleton and posterior leg muscles in queen of ant Cataglyphis savignyi
<p>The external trochanter muscles (orange) of mid- and hindlegs originate on fused meso- and metafurcae (blue) in <em>Cataglyphis savignyi</em> queens. Depressor muscles of the petiole (light blue) originate on base of T3 furca.<br> </p> <p><strong>Micro-CT </strong>scans were performed at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University, Japan<strong>.</strong></p> <p><strong>Segmentation </strong>of the reconstructed image stacks was performed with ITK-SNAP 3.6.0. Structures were segmented manually.</p>
Data from: Joint evolution of asexuality and queen number in an ant
Ants exhibit a striking diversity of reproductive systems, varying in traits such as the number of reproductives per colony [1], the mode of daughter production (sexual or asexual) [2], and the mode of caste determination (genetic or environmental) [3]. Species employing mixed reproductive systems present a unique opportunity to explore the causes and consequences of alternative breeding strategies. Mixed reproductive systems in ants include social polymorphism in colony queen number, whereby single-queen (monogyne) and multiple-queen (polygyne) colonies co-occur within species [4, 5, 6, 7], and facultative asexuality, in which female offspring may be produced sexually or asexually within colonies [8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13]. Here, we document a remarkable confluence of multiple mixed reproductive systems in the tropical fire ant, Solenopsis geminata, in a population with three important features: (1) polygyne colonies produce workers sexually but queens asexually, whereas monogyne colonies produce both castes sexually; (2) polygyne queens mate with monogyne males to produce workers, but monogyne queens do not mate with polygyne males; and (3) different asexual/polygyne lineages evidently were founded separately by genetically distinct founder queens, which appear to have originated from the same neighboring monogyne population. Multiple asexual/polygyne genomes are transmitted undiluted in this system, but sterile workers produced with sperm from a sexually-reproducing/monogyne population are necessary for the persistence of these lineages. The intersection of social polymorphism, facultative asexuality, and genetic caste determination marks this population of S. geminata as an embodiment of the diversity of ant reproductive systems and suggests previously unknown connections between these phenomena.
Early queen infection shapes developmental dynamics and induces long-term disease protection in incipient ant colonies
<p>Infections early in life can have enduring effects on an organism's development and immunity. In this study, we show that this equally applies to developing "superorganisms" – incipient social insect colonies. When we exposed newly mated <i>Lasius niger</i> ant queens to a low pathogen dose, their colonies grew more slowly than controls before winter, but reached similar sizes afterwards. Independent of exposure, queen hibernation survival improved when the ratio of pupae to workers was small. Queens that reared fewer pupae before worker emergence exhibited lower pathogen levels, indicating that high brood rearing efforts interfere with the ability of the queen's immune system to suppress pathogen proliferation. Early-life queen pathogen-exposure also improved the immunocompetence of her worker offspring, as demonstrated by challenging the workers to the same pathogen a year later. Transgenerational transfer of the queen's pathogen experience to her workforce can hence durably reduce the disease susceptibility of the whole superorganism.</p>
Queens control caste allocation in the ant Cardiocondyla obscurior
<p>Social insect queens and workers can engage in conflict over reproductive allocation when they have different fitness optima. Here, we show that queens have control over queen-worker caste allocation in the ant <em>Cardiocondyla</em> <em>obscurior</em>, a species in which workers lack reproductive organs. We describe crystalline deposits that distinguish castes from the egg stage onwards, providing the first report of a discrete trait that can be used to identify ant caste throughout pre-imaginal development. Comparison of queen- and worker-destined eggs and larvae revealed size and weight differences in late development, but no discernible differences in traits that may be used in social interactions, including hair morphology and cuticular odors. In line with a lack of caste-specific traits, adult workers treated developing queens and workers indiscriminately. Together with previous studies demonstrating queen control over sex allocation, these results show that queens control reproductive allocation in <em>C. obscurior</em> and suggest that the fitness interests of colony members are aligned to optimise resource allocation in this ant.</p>
Formica fusca: Queen fecundity, worker entourage, and cuticular chemistry in the ant Formica fusca
<p><span>Cooperative breeding entails conflicts over reproductive shares that may be settled in different ways. In ants, where several queens simultaneously reproduce in a colony, both queens and workers may influence the reproductive apportionment and offspring quality. Queens may vary in their intrinsic fecundity, which may influence the size of the worker entourage attending individual queens, and this may eventually dictate the reproductive output of a queen. We tested whether the reproductive success of queens is affected by the size of their worker entourage, their fecundity at the onset of the reproductive season, and whether the queen cuticular hydrocarbon profile carries information on fecundity. We show that in the ant <em>Formica fusca</em> both queen fecundity and egg hatching success increase with the size of their entourage, and that initially highly fecund queens lay larger eggs. Furthermore, higher relatedness among workers increased queen fecundity. Finally, the queens that received a large worker entourage differed in the cuticular chemistry from those that received a small worker entourage. Our results thus show that workers play a pivotal role in determining queen fitness that high intracolony relatedness among workers enhances the overall reproductive output in the colony, and that queen fecundity is reflected in their cuticular hydrocarbon profile.</span></p>
Fig. 2 in New records of the exotic black little ant Monomorium carbonarium in the Iberian Peninsula and discovery of the ergatoid queen (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)
Fig. 2 – Worker of M. carbonarium in lateral view.
Fig. 4 in New records of the exotic black little ant Monomorium carbonarium in the Iberian Peninsula and discovery of the ergatoid queen (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)
Fig. 4 – Ergatoid queen of M. carbonarium.
Data from: Unexpected absence of a multiple-queen supergene haplotype from supercolonial populations of Formica ants
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Early queen infection shapes developmental dynamics and induces long-term disease protection in incipient ant colonies
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Formica fusca: Queen fecundity, worker entourage, and cuticular chemistry in the ant Formica fusca
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Queen execution in a monogynous ant
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Data from: Worker survival and egg production– but not transcriptional activity– respond to queen number in the highly polygynous, invasive ant Tapinoma magnum
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Data from: Joint evolution of asexuality and queen number in an ant
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Queens control caste allocation in the ant Cardiocondyla obscurior
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Ontogeny of superorganisms: Social control of queen specialization in ants
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Data from: Experimental increase in fecundity causes upregulation of fecundity and body maintenance genes in the fat body of ant queens
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Data for ant queen lifespan in the field
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Identification of a queen pheromone mediating the rearing of adult sexuals in the pharaoh ant Monomorium pharaonis
<p>Division of labour between reproductive queens and mostly sterile workers is among the defining characteristics of social insects. Queen-produced chemical signals advertising her presence and fertility status, i.e. queen pheromones, are normally used to assert the queen's reproductive dominance in the colony. Most queen pheromones identified to date are chemicals that stop the daughter workers from reproducing. Nevertheless, it has long been suggested that queen pheromones could also regulate reproduction in different ways. In some multiple-queen ants with obligately sterile workers, for example – such as fire ants and pharaoh ants – queen pheromones are thought to regulate reproduction by inhibiting the rearing of new sexuals. Here we identify the first such queen pheromone in the pharaoh ant <i>Monomorium pharaonis </i>and demonstrate its mode of action via bioassays with the pure biosynthesized compound. In particular, we show that the monocyclic diterpene neocembrene, which in different <i>Monomorium</i> species is produced solely by fertile, egg-laying queens, strongly inhibits the rearing of new sexuals (queens and males) and also exerts a weakly attractive "queen retinue" effect on the workers. This is the first time that a queen pheromone with such a dual function has been identified in a social insect species with obligately sterile workers.</p>
Experimental increase in fecundity causes upregulation of fecundity and body maintenance genes in the fat body of ant queens
<p>In most organisms, fecundity and longevity are negatively associated and the molecular regulation of these two life history traits is highly interconnected. In addition, nutrient intake often has opposing effects on lifespan and reproduction. In contrast to solitary insects, the main reproductive individual of social hymenopterans, the queen, is also the most long-lived. During development, queen larvae are well-nourished, but we are only beginning to understand the impact of nutrition on the queens' adult life and the molecular regulation and connectivity of fecundity and longevity. Here, we used two experimental manipulations to alter queen fecundity in the ant <i>Temnothorax rugatulus</i> and investigated associated changes in fat body gene expression. Egg removal triggered a fecundity increase, leading to expression changes in genes with functions in fecundity such as oogenesis and body maintenance. Dietary restriction lowered the egg production of queens and altered the expression of genes linked to autophagy, Toll signalling, cellular homeostasis, and immunity. Our study reveals that an experimental increase in fecundity causes the co-activation of reproduction and body maintenance mechanisms, shedding light on the molecular regulation of the link between longevity and fecundity in social insects.</p>
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International Brain Laboratory public data
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OpenNeuro
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