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Factors triggering queen executions in the Argentine ant
Competition among queens in polygynous societies may result in queen executions or conflicts over personal reproduction. Understanding the factors that mediate the executions of ant queens should provide insight into how queen numbers are regulated in polygynous insect societies. The Argentine ant i...
Autores principales: | , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Nature Publishing Group UK
2019
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6639317/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31320714 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-46972-5 |
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author | Abril, Sílvia Gómez, Crisanto |
author_facet | Abril, Sílvia Gómez, Crisanto |
author_sort | Abril, Sílvia |
collection | PubMed |
description | Competition among queens in polygynous societies may result in queen executions or conflicts over personal reproduction. Understanding the factors that mediate the executions of ant queens should provide insight into how queen numbers are regulated in polygynous insect societies. The Argentine ant is a widespread invasive species that displays secondary polygyny, and workers execute 90% of their nestmate queens each spring. In this study, we investigated: (1) whether ambient temperature, queen number, and protein deprivation have an effect on queen executions and (2) whether workers select the queens slated for execution based on their cuticular hydrocarbon (CHC) profiles. We found that the percentage of queens executed was positively correlated with temperature and queen number but that protein deprivation did not play a role. As for queen fate, the levels of some CHCs were higher in surviving queens. One of these CHCs is associated with queen productivity (i.e egg-laying rate and ovarian index) suggesting that workers execute the least productive queens. Our findings suggest that chemical cues related to fertility signaling may mediate queen executions in Argentine ants. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-6639317 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2019 |
publisher | Nature Publishing Group UK |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-66393172019-07-25 Factors triggering queen executions in the Argentine ant Abril, Sílvia Gómez, Crisanto Sci Rep Article Competition among queens in polygynous societies may result in queen executions or conflicts over personal reproduction. Understanding the factors that mediate the executions of ant queens should provide insight into how queen numbers are regulated in polygynous insect societies. The Argentine ant is a widespread invasive species that displays secondary polygyny, and workers execute 90% of their nestmate queens each spring. In this study, we investigated: (1) whether ambient temperature, queen number, and protein deprivation have an effect on queen executions and (2) whether workers select the queens slated for execution based on their cuticular hydrocarbon (CHC) profiles. We found that the percentage of queens executed was positively correlated with temperature and queen number but that protein deprivation did not play a role. As for queen fate, the levels of some CHCs were higher in surviving queens. One of these CHCs is associated with queen productivity (i.e egg-laying rate and ovarian index) suggesting that workers execute the least productive queens. Our findings suggest that chemical cues related to fertility signaling may mediate queen executions in Argentine ants. Nature Publishing Group UK 2019-07-18 /pmc/articles/PMC6639317/ /pubmed/31320714 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-46972-5 Text en © The Author(s) 2019 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
spellingShingle | Article Abril, Sílvia Gómez, Crisanto Factors triggering queen executions in the Argentine ant |
title | Factors triggering queen executions in the Argentine ant |
title_full | Factors triggering queen executions in the Argentine ant |
title_fullStr | Factors triggering queen executions in the Argentine ant |
title_full_unstemmed | Factors triggering queen executions in the Argentine ant |
title_short | Factors triggering queen executions in the Argentine ant |
title_sort | factors triggering queen executions in the argentine ant |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6639317/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31320714 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-46972-5 |
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