Dataset Information

Social enforcement depending on the stage of colony growth in an ant.

ABSTRACT: Altruism is a paradox in Darwinian evolution. Policing is an important mechanism of the evolution and maintenance of altruism. A recently developed dynamic game model incorporating colony demography and inclusive fitness predicts that, in hymenopteran social insects, policing behaviour enforcing reproductive altruism in group members depends strongly on the colony growth stage, with strong policing as the colony develops and a relaxation of policing during the reproductive phase. Here, we report clear evidence supporting this prediction. In the ant Diacamma sp., reproduction by workers was suppressed by worker policing when the colony was small, whereas in large, mature colonies worker policing was relaxed and worker-produced males emerged. Conditional expression of traits can provide strong empirical evidence for natural selection theory if the expression pattern is precisely predicted by the theory, and our results illustrate the importance of intracolony population dynamics in the evolution of social systems.

SUBMITTER: Shimoji H

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5897631 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Social enforcement depending on the stage of colony growth in an ant.

Shimoji Hiroyuki H Kikuchi Tomonori T Ohnishi Hitoshi H Kikuta Noritsugu N Tsuji Kazuki K

Proceedings. Biological sciences 20180301 1875

Altruism is a paradox in Darwinian evolution. Policing is an important mechanism of the evolution and maintenance of altruism. A recently developed dynamic game model incorporating colony demography and inclusive fitness predicts that, in hymenopteran social insects, policing behaviour enforcing reproductive altruism in group members depends strongly on the colony growth stage, with strong policing as the colony develops and a relaxation of policing during the reproductive phase. Here, we report ...[more]

PMID: 29593107

Similar Datasets

Project description:AbstractKey social traits, like queen number in eusocial insect colonies, have long been considered plastic, but the recent finding that colony social organization is under strict genetic control in multiple ant lineages challenges this view. This begs the question of which hardwired behavioral mechanism(s) generate alternative forms of social organization during colony development. We addressed this question in the Alpine silver ant, Formica selysi, a species with two social forms determined by a supergene. Queens that carry exclusively the M haplotype are produced by and live in monogyne (= single-queen) colonies, whereas queens that carry at least one copy of the P haplotype are produced by and live in polygyne (= multiple-queen) colonies. With extensive field samplings and laboratory experiments, we show that both types of queens successfully establish colonies independently, without being accompanied by workers, but that they do so in contrasting ways. Monogyne queens were generally intolerant of other queens and founded colonies solitarily, whereas polygyne queens were mutually attracted to each other and mainly founded colonies cooperatively. These associations persisted for months after worker emergence, suggesting that cooperative colony-founding leads to permanent multiple queening. Overall, our study shows that queens of each social form found colonies independently in the field but that P-carrying queens are more likely to cooperate, thereby contributing to perpetuate alternative forms of social organization.Significance statementUnderstanding the genetic and behavioral underpinnings of social organization is a major goal in evolutionary biology. Recent studies have shown that colony social organization is controlled by supergenes in multiple ant lineages. But the behavioral processes linking the genotype of a queen to the type of colony she will form remain largely unknown. Here, we show that in Alpine silver ants, alternative supergene genotypes are associated with different levels of social attraction and tolerance in young queens. These hardwired differences in social traits make queens carrying the P supergene haplotype more prone to cooperate and form durable associations during independent colony-founding. These findings help explain how genetic variants induce alternative forms of social organization during the ontogeny of a colony. They also illustrate how simple phenotypic differences at the individual level can result in large differences at higher levels of organization.Supplementary informationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00265-021-03105-1.

Project description:BACKGROUND: Microorganisms are a large and diverse form of life. Many of them live in association with large multicellular organisms, developing symbiotic relations with the host and some have even evolved to form obligate endosymbiosis. All Carpenter ants (genus Camponotus) studied hitherto harbour primary endosymbiotic bacteria of the Blochmannia genus. The role of these bacteria in ant nutrition has been demonstrated but the omnivorous diet of these ants lead us to hypothesize that the bacteria might provide additional advantages to their host. In this study, we establish links between Blochmannia, growth of starting new colonies and the host immune response. RESULTS: We manipulated the number of bacterial endosymbionts in incipient laboratory-reared colonies of Camponotus fellah by administrating doses of an antibiotic (Rifampin) mixed in honey-solution. Efficiency of the treatment was estimated by quantitative polymerase chain reaction and Fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH), using Blochmannia specific primers (qPCR) and two fluorescent probes (one for all Eubacterial and other specific for Blochmannia). Very few or no bacteria could be detected in treated ants. Incipient Rifampin treated colonies had significantly lower numbers of brood and adult workers than control colonies. The immune response of ants from control and treated colonies was estimated by inserting nylon filaments in the gaster and removing it after 24 h. In the control colonies, the encapsulation response was positively correlated to the bacterial amount, while no correlation was observed in treated colonies. Indeed, antibiotic treatment increased the encapsulation response of the workers, probably due to stress conditions. CONCLUSION: The increased growth rate observed in non-treated colonies confirms the importance of Blochmannia in this phase of colony development. This would provide an important selective advantage during colony founding, where the colonies are faced with severe inter and intraspecific competition. Furthermore, the bacteria improve the workers encapsulation response. Thus, these ants are likely to be less susceptible to various pathogen attacks, such as the Phoridae fly parasitoids, normally found in the vicinity of Camponotus nests. These advantages might explain the remarkable ecological success of this ant genus, comprising more than 1000 species.

Project description:Allocation of goods is a key feature in defining the connection between the individual and the collective scale in any society. Both the process by which goods are to be distributed, and the resulting allocation to the members of the society may affect the success of the population as a whole. One of the most striking natural examples of a highly successful cooperative society is the ant colony which often acts as a single superorganism. In particular, each individual within the ant colony has a "communal stomach" which is used to store and share food with the other colony members by mouth to mouth feeding. Sharing food between communal stomachs allows the colony as a whole to get its food requirements and, more so, allows each individual within the colony to reach its nutritional intake target. The vast majority of colony members do not forage independently but obtain their food through secondary interactions in which food is exchanged between individuals. The global effect of this exchange is not well understood. To gain better understanding into this process we used fluorescence imaging to measure how food from a single external source is distributed and mixed within a Camponotus sanctus ant colony. Using entropic measures to quantify food-blending, we show that while collected food flows into all parts of the colony it mixes only partly. We show that mixing is controlled by the ants' interaction rule which implies that only a fraction of the maximal potential is actually transferred. This rule leads to a robust blending process: i.e., neither the exact food volume that is transferred, nor the interaction schedule are essential to generate the global outcome. Finally, we show how the ants' interaction rules may optimize a trade-off between fast dissemination and efficient mixing. Our results regarding the distribution of a single food source provide a baseline for future studies on distributed regulation of multiple food sources in social insect colonies.

Dataset Information

Social enforcement depending on the stage of colony growth in an ant.

Publications

Social enforcement depending on the stage of colony growth in an ant.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure