Communal Nutrition in Ants
Communal Nutrition in Ants
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DOI：
10.1016/j.cub.2009.03.015
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发表时间：
2009-05-12
期刊：
影响因子：
9.2
通讯作者：
Simpson, Stephen J.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Dussutour, Audrey;Simpson, Stephen J.
对非社会性昆虫的研究已经阐明了满足营养需求的调控策略[1-3]。然而，社会性昆虫如何在集体和个体水平上维持适当的营养平衡仍然是未知的。社会性使营养调节策略复杂化[4-6]。首先，进入群体的食物是由少数工蜂收集的，它们需要根据殖民地内个体对营养物质的需求调整收获策略[4-7]。其次，由于工蜂利用碳水化合物，幼虫消耗蛋白质[7-14]，因此必须存在来自两者的营养反馈，并将其整合以确定觅食蜂的食物利用[4-6，15，16]。在这里，我们表明，觅食蚂蚁可以解决营养的挑战，为殖民地作出复杂的调整，他们的进食行为和营养加工，作为一个集体的嘴和肠道。所收集的营养物的量和平衡以及调节的精确度取决于殖民地中幼虫的存在。蚂蚁通过提取碳水化合物和排出蛋白质来改善所收集食物的常量营养素平衡。然而，处理过量的蛋白质缩短了寿命，这种影响在幼虫存在时得到了极大的改善。
Studies on nonsocial insects have elucidated the regulatory strategies employed to meet nutritional demands [1-3]. However, how social insects maintain the supply of an appropriate balance of nutrients at both a collective and an individual level remains unknown. Sociality complicates nutritional regulatory strategies [4-6]. First, the food entering a colony is collected by a small number of workers, which need to adjust their harvesting strategy to the demands for nutrients among individuals within the colony [4-7]. Second, because carbohydrates are used by the workers and proteins consumed by the larvae [7-14], nutritional feedbacks emanating from both must exist and be integrated to determine food exploitation by foragers [4-6, 15, 16]. Here, we show that foraging ants can solve nutritional challenges for the colony by making intricate adjustments to their feeding behavior and nutrient processing, acting both as a collective mouth and gut. The amount and balance of nutrients collected and the precision of regulation depend on the presence of larvae in the colony. Ants improved the macronutrient balance of collected foods by extracting carbohydrates and ejecting proteins. Nevertheless, processing excess protein shortened life span-an effect that was greatly ameliorated in the presence of larvae.