Lovegrove, MR, Dearden, PK and Duncan, EJ orcid.org/0000-0002-1841-504X (Cover date: November-December 2019) Ancestral hymenopteran queen pheromones do not share the broad phylogenetic repressive effects of honeybee queen mandibular pheromone. Journal of Insect Physiology, 119. 103968. ISSN 0022-1910
Abstract
Queen pheromones effect the reproductive division of labour, a defining feature of eusociality. Reproductive division of labour ensures that one, or a small number of, females are responsible for the majority of reproduction within a colony. Much work on the evolution and function of these pheromones has focussed on Queen Mandibular Pheromone (QMP) which is produced by the Western or European honeybee (Apis mellifera). QMP has phylogenetically broad effects, repressing reproduction in a variety of arthropods, including those distantly related to the honeybee such as the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. QMP is highly derived and has little chemical similarity to the majority of hymenopteran queen pheromones which are derived from cuticular hydrocarbons. This raises the question of whether the phylogenetically widespread repression of reproduction by QMP also occurs with more basal saturated hydrocarbon-based queen-pheromones. Using D. melanogaster we show that saturated hydrocarbons, are incapable of repressing reproduction, unlike QMP. We also show no interaction between the four saturated hydrocarbons tested or between the saturated hydrocarbons and QMP, implying that there is no conservation in the mechanism of detection or action between these compounds. We propose that the phylogenetically broad reproductive repression seen in response to QMP is not a feature of all queen pheromones, but unique to QMP itself, which has implications for our understanding of how queen pheromones act and evolve.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. This is an author produced version of a paper published in Journal of Insect Physiology. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Keywords: | Eusociality; QMP; queen pheromones; social evolution; eproductive constraint; oogenesis |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Biological Sciences (Leeds) > School of Biology (Leeds) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number EU - European Union 752656 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 31 Oct 2019 15:46 |
Last Modified: | 25 Oct 2020 00:38 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Elsevier |
Identification Number: | 10.1016/j.jinsphys.2019.103968 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:152861 |