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Publication Details
AFRICAN RESEARCH NEXUS
SHINING A SPOTLIGHT ON AFRICAN RESEARCH
agricultural and biological sciences
Worker caste determination in the army ant Eciton burchellii
Biology Letters, Volume 3, No. 5, Year 2007
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Description
Elaborate division of labour has contributed significantly to the ecological success of social insects. Division of labour is achieved either by behavioural task specialization or by morphological specialization of colony members. In physical caste systems, the diet and rearing environment of developing larvae is known to determine the phenotype of adult individuals, but recent studies have shown that genetic components also contribute to the determination of worker caste. One of the most extreme cases of worker caste differentiation occurs in the army ant genus Eciton, where queens mate with many males and colonies are therefore composed of numerous full-sister subfamilies. This high intracolonial genetic diversity, in combination with the extreme caste polymorphism, provides an excellent test system for studying the extent to which caste determination is genetically controlled. Here we show that genetic effects contribute significantly to worker caste fate in Eciton burchellii. We conclude that the combination of polyandry and genetic variation for caste determination may have facilitated the evolution of worker caste diversity in some lineages of social insects. © 2007 The Royal Society.
Authors & Co-Authors
Jaffe, Rodolfo Ribbi
Germany, Halle
Martin-luther-universität Halle-wittenberg
Kraus, Frank Bernhard
Mexico, Tapachula
El Colegio de la Frontera Sur
Boomsma, Jacobus Jan
Denmark, Copenhagen
Københavns Universitet
Moritz, Robin F.A.
Germany, Halle
Martin-luther-universität Halle-wittenberg
Statistics
Citations: 64
Authors: 4
Affiliations: 3
Identifiers
Doi:
10.1098/rsbl.2007.0257
ISSN:
17449561
Research Areas
Genetics And Genomics