The evolution of caste determination systems in termites

白蚁每年在澳大利亚造成大约10亿美元的损失。迄今为止，所有这些损害都来自本地物种，但贪婪的外来物种入侵的威胁一直存在。该项目将提供关于白蚁产生工蚁和王族的机制的基本知识，以及通过幼蚁繁殖产生群体萌芽的方式。这将为新的和高度特异性的白蚁控制方法提供基础，以确定目标等级。不育的、利他的种姓的存在给达尔文提出了一个著名的难题。这个项目是开创性的，因为它将提供解释这个谜题（亲缘选择）的理论和分子生物学之间的关键联系。

Termites cause around a billion dollars of damage in Australia each year. To date, all this damage is from native species, but there is the constant threat of invasion by voracious exotics. This project will provide fundamental knowledge on the mechanism termites use to produce the distinctive worker and royal castes, and on the way colony budding arises via juvenile reproduction. This will provide the basis for novel and highly specific termite control methods that target caste determination. The existence of sterile, altruistic castes famously posed a conundrum for Darwin. This project is ground-breaking because it will provide the critical link between the theory that explains the puzzle (kin selection) and molecular biology.