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Effects of juvenile hormone in fertility and fertility-signaling in workers of the common wasp Vespula vulgaris.

ABSTRACT: In the highly eusocial wasp, Vespula vulgaris, queens produce honest signals to alert their subordinate workers of their fertility status, and therefore they are reproductively suppressed and help in the colony. The honesty of the queen signals is likely maintained due to hormonal regulation, which affects fertility and fertility cue expression. Here, we tested if hormonal pleiotropy could support the hypothesis that juvenile hormone controls fertility and fertility signaling in workers. In addition, we aimed to check oocyte size as a proxy of fertility. To do that, we treated V. vulgaris workers with synthetic versions of juvenile hormone (JH) analogue and a JH inhibitor, methoprene and precocene, respectively. We dissected the treated females to check ovary activation and analyzed their chemical profile. Our results showed that juvenile hormone has an influence on the abundance of fertility linked compounds produced by workers, and it also showed to increase oocyte size in workers. Our results corroborate the hypothesis that juvenile hormone controls fertility and fertility signaling in workers, whereby workers are unable to reproduce without alerting other colony members of their fertility. This provides supports the hypothesis that hormonal pleiotropy contributes to keeping the queen fertility signals honest.

SUBMITTER: Oi CA

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8128253 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:In honeybees, differential feeding of female larvae promotes the occurrence of two different phenotypes, a queen and a worker, from identical genotypes. Nutritional factors affect both endocrine responses and gene expression and, thus, change the larval developmental pattern. It is widely accepted that two types of alterations occur during this process: incremental alterations, which affect general growth, and character state alterations that result in the presence or absence of specific structures. Previous studies revealed a link between incremental alterations and differential expression of physiometabolic genes. Here, we report evidence for molecular changes that affect character states, controlling the expression of worker-like characteristics. By using cDNA microarray analyses of more than 6,000 Apis mellifera ESTs we found 240 differentially expressed genes (DEG) between developing queens and workers. Comparative analyses showed that many genes recorded as up-regulated in prospective workers appear to be unique to A. mellifera suggesting that the workers developmental pathway involves the participation of novel genes. We also show that workers up-regulate more developmental genes than queens, whereas queens up-regulate a greater predominance of physiometabolic genes. The latter include genes coding for metabolic enzymes and genes whose products are known to regulate the rate of mass-transforming processes and the general growth of the organism (e.g., tor). Many DEG are likely to be involved in processes favoring the development of caste-specific structures, like brain, legs and ovaries, as well as genes that code for cytoskeleton constituents. Treatment of developing worker larvae with juvenile hormone (JH) revealed 52 JH responsive genes, specifically during the critical period of castes development. Using Gibbs sampling and Expectation Maximization algorithms, we discovered eight overrepresented cis-elements from 4 gene groups. Graph theory and complex networks concepts were adopted to attain powerful graphical representations of the interrelation between cis-elements and genes and objectively quantify the degree of relationship between these entities. We suggest that clusters of functionally related DEGs are co-regulated during caste development in honeybees. This network of interactions is activated by nutrition-driven stimuli in early larval stages. Our data are consistent with the hypothesis that JH is a key component of the developmental determination of queen-like characters. We propose a conceptual model of caste differentiation in A. mellifera based on gene-regulatory networks. Keywords: caste differentiation during larval development; JH effect

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Effects of juvenile hormone in fertility and fertility-signaling in workers of the common wasp Vespula vulgaris.

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