Queen pheromone promotes production of salivary lysozyme by workers in a termite
Queen pheromone promotes production of salivary lysozyme by workers in a termite
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DOI：
10.1007/s00040-015-0396-4
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发表时间：
2015-05-01
期刊：
影响因子：
1.3
通讯作者：
Matsuura, K.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Suehiro, W.;Matsuura, K.
社会性昆虫有高度复杂的通讯系统。特别是，通过信息素的通信对于维持复杂的社会角色和行为是重要的。育雏是一个典型的活动，涉及群体成员之间的信息素通信。在白蚁中，如果没有工蚁的梳理，白蚁卵就无法存活。工蚁用唾液包裹鸡蛋，唾液中含有一种抗菌蛋白溶菌酶，可以保护鸡蛋免受细菌病原体的侵害。一个蚁群的卵越多，工蚁需要产生的唾液溶菌酶就越多。然而，目前还不清楚白蚁工人如何调节其溶菌酶的生产。在这里，我们表明，女王信息素，这是由皇后和鸡蛋，促进工人在白蚁Reticulitermes speratus溶菌酶的生产。暴露于人工蜂王信息素显着增加唾液溶菌酶的生产工人以及人工添加的鸡蛋。此外，我们的调查领域的殖民地揭示了明确的季节性生产的唾液溶菌酶。溶菌酶产量的季节变化规律与每群产卵量的季节变化规律相吻合。除了已知的功能的女王信息素作为抑制剂的幼态女王分化，这项研究表明，同样的信息素也作为一个促进剂的溶菌酶生产工人。我们描述了一种新的功能，白蚁的多功能女王信息素和社会昆虫信息素的进化简约性提供了新的见解。
Social insects have highly elaborated communication systems. In particular, communication via pheromones is important for maintaining complex social roles and behaviors. Brood care is a typical activity that involves pheromonal communication among colony members. In termites, eggs cannot survive without grooming by workers. The workers coat the eggs with their saliva, which contains an antibacterial protein lysozyme that protects the eggs against bacterial pathogens. The more eggs a colony has, the more salivary lysozyme the workers need to produce for egg grooming. However, it is unknown how termite workers regulate their lysozyme production. Here we show that the queen pheromone, which is emitted by both queens and eggs, promotes lysozyme production by workers in the termite Reticulitermes speratus. Exposure to artificial queen pheromone significantly increased the production of salivary lysozyme by workers as well as the artificial addition of eggs. Furthermore, our survey of field colonies revealed clear seasonality in the production of salivary lysozyme. The seasonal pattern of lysozyme production matched well with the seasonal change of the number of eggs per colony. In addition to the known function of the queen pheromone as an inhibitor of neotenic queen differentiation, this study reveals that the same pheromone also acts as a promoter of lysozyme production in workers. We describe a novel function of the multifunctional queen pheromone in termites and provide new insights into the evolutionary parsimony of social insect pheromones.