Developmental regulation of caste-specific characters in social-insect polyphenism
Developmental regulation of caste-specific characters in social-insect polyphenism
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DOI：
10.1111/j.1525-142x.2005.05014.x
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发表时间：
2005-03-01
影响因子：
2.9
通讯作者：
Miura, T
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Miura, T
生物体的表型不完全由遗传决定，而是根据环境因素而变化（表型可塑性）。有些生物表现出几种离散的适应性表型（多型性）。社会性昆虫在其群体中拥有几种类型的个体（种姓），并分配特定的任务。在这里，我回顾了研究种姓多型在蚂蚁和白蚁，在特定的种姓字符的发展机制，如有翅的翅膀和士兵下颌。在蚂蚁中，种姓的发育命运可能是由胚胎后发育早期的模式形成基因决定的，但凋亡变性发生在未来工人的翅原基。由于在两个遗传学上相距甚远的蚂蚁群体中观察到了凋亡性翅退化，因此认为这种现象在许多蚂蚁物种中是保守的。另一方面，所有的白蚁物种都具有独特的不育士兵，具有适合防御的特定形态。最近的研究利用分子技术分离出与士兵分化相关的基因，并分析这些基因的表达谱，以了解种姓分化的机制以及分子进化与社会进化之间的联系。本文从个体发育与环境相互作用的角度，对这些研究进行综述，并探讨个体发育与环境相互作用的进化过程。
Phenotypes of organisms are not determined completely genetically, but vary according to environmental factors (phenotypic plasticity). Some organisms express several discrete adaptive phenotypes (polyphenism). Social insects possess a few types of individuals (castes) in their colonies, to which specific tasks are allocated. Here, I review studies on caste polyphenism in ants and termites, in terms of the developmental mechanisms of caste-specific characters, such as alate wings and soldier mandibles. In ants, the developmental fate of caste is probably determined by the pattern-formation genes in the early stage of postembryonic development, but apoptotic degeneration occurs in the wing primordia of future workers. As apoptotic wing degeneration has been observed in two phylogenetically distant groups of ants, this phenomenon is suggested to be conserved in many ant species. On the other hand, all termite species possess distinct sterile soldiers with specific morphologies suitable for defense. Recent studies using molecular techniques isolated genes related to soldier differentiation and analyzed the expression profiles of those genes in order to understand the mechanism of caste differentiation and the link between molecular and social evolution. In this review, I focus on these studies, in terms of the alteration of body plan in response to environmental signals, and discuss the evolutionary process of the interaction between ontogeny and environment.