Maternal and nourishment factors interact to influence offspring developmental trajectories in social wasps.

ABSTRACT: The social and nutritional environments during early development have the potential to affect offspring traits, but the mechanisms and molecular underpinnings of these effects remain elusive. We used Polistes fuscatus paper wasps to dissect how maternally controlled factors (vibrational signals and nourishment) interact to induce different caste developmental trajectories in female offspring, leading to worker or reproductive (gyne) traits. We established a set of caste phenotype biomarkers in P. fuscatus females, finding that gyne-destined individuals had high expression of three caste-related genes hypothesized to have roles in diapause and mitochondrial metabolism. We then experimentally manipulated maternal vibrational signals (via artificial 'antennal drumming') and nour

SUBMITTER: Jandt JM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5489728 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature