Experimental disruption of social structure reveals totipotency in the orchid bee, Euglossa dilemma
Experimental disruption of social structure reveals totipotency in the orchid bee, Euglossa dilemma
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DOI：
10.1111/evo.14513
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发表时间：
2022-01
期刊：
影响因子：
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通讯作者：
N. Saleh;Jonas Henske;S. Ramírez
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文献类型：
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作者：
N. Saleh;Jonas Henske;S. Ramírez
在整个昆虫系统发展史上，群居性已经进化了多次。社会复杂性较高的群居昆虫倾向于表现出低水平的个体表型可塑性的特化等级。相比之下，具有小而简单的社会群体的物种可能由全能的个体组成，这些个体可以随着社会等级的变化在行为和繁殖状态之间转换。然而，最近的研究表明，在一些简单的社会群体中，由于母体营养或初始社会互动的差异，个体的可塑性仍然可能受到限制。在社会进化过程中，这些限制是如何以及何时产生的，最终导致了非生殖工人的进化，目前还不清楚。一些种类的兰花蜂可以形成一个主导和1-2个从属帮助者的社会群体，所有个体都是生殖个体。雌性也可以在出现时分散开来，作为一个单独的奠基者开始自己的巢穴，这包括一个非繁殖性的守巢阶段，而不是下属通常表现出来的。几乎没有数据可以描述兰花蜜蜂在这些轨迹上的灵活性。在这里，我们利用兰花蜂Euglossa困境，进行了一项评估从属帮助者可塑性的实验，发现他们高度灵活，能够在行为，生理，转录组学和化学上发生变化。此外，我们还确定了与雌雄同体雌雄同体的生殖变化相关的基因和基因网络，这些基因和基因网络与群居物种的工蜂生理相关的基因重叠。我们的研究结果提供了证据，证明在E.困境中缺乏非生殖工作者不是由于缺乏下属可塑性。
Eusociality has evolved multiple times across the insect phylogeny. Social insects with greater levels of social complexity tend to exhibit specialized castes with low levels of individual phenotypic plasticity. In contrast, species with small, simple social groups may consist of totipotent individuals that can transition among behavioral and reproductive states as the social hierarchy shifts. However, recent work has shown that in some simple social groups, there can still be constraint on individual plasticity, caused by differences in maternal nourishment or initial social interaction. It is not well understood how and when these constraints arise during social evolution, ultimately leading to the evolution of nonreproductive workers. Some species of orchid bees can form social groups of a dominant and 1-2 subordinate helpers where all individuals are reproductive. Females can also disperse on emergence to start their own nest as a solitary foundress, which includes a nonreproductive nest guarding phase not typically expressed by subordinates. Little data exist to characterize the flexibility of orchid bees across these trajectories. Here, using the orchid bee Euglossa dilemma, we conduct an experiment assessing the plasticity of subordinate helpers, finding that they are highly flexible and capable of the behavioral, physiological, transcriptomic, and chemical changes seen in foundresses. Furthermore, we identify genes and gene networks associated with reproductive changes in E. dilemma that overlap with genes associated with worker physiology in eusocial species. Our results provide evidence that the lack of nonreproductive workers in E. dilemma is not due to a lack of subordinate plasticity.