1
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Southon RJ, Radford AN, Sumner S. Hormone-mediated dispersal and sexual maturation in males of the social paper wasp Polistes lanio. ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2020; 223:jeb.226472. [PMID: 33139391 DOI: 10.1242/jeb.226472] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/09/2020] [Accepted: 10/19/2020] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
Abstract
Sex-biased dispersal is common in social species, but the dispersing sex may delay emigration if associated benefits are not immediately attainable. In the social Hymenoptera (ants, some bees and wasps), newly emerged males typically disperse from the natal nest whilst most females remain as philopatric helpers. However, little information exists on the mechanisms regulating male dispersal. Furthermore, the conservation of such mechanisms across the Hymenoptera and any role of sexual maturation are also relatively unknown. Through field observations and mark-recapture, we observed that males of the social paper wasp Polistes lanio emerge from pupation sexually immature, and delay dispersal from their natal nest for up to 7 days whilst undergoing sexual maturation. Delayed dispersal may benefit males by allowing them to mature in the safety of the nest and thus be more competitive in mating. We also demonstrate that both male dispersal and maturation are associated with juvenile hormone (JH), a key regulator of insect reproductive physiology and behaviour, which also has derived functions regulating social organisation in female Hymenoptera. Males treated with methoprene (a JH analogue) dispersed earlier and possessed significantly larger accessory glands than their age-matched controls. These results highlight the wide role of JH in social hymenopteran behaviour, with parallel ancestral functions in males and females, and raise new questions on the nature of selection for sex-biased dispersal.
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Affiliation(s)
- Robin J Southon
- School of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1TQ, UK .,Centre for Biodiversity and Environmental Research, Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment, University College London, London WC1E 6BT, UK
| | - Andrew N Radford
- School of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1TQ, UK
| | - Seirian Sumner
- School of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1TQ, UK.,Centre for Biodiversity and Environmental Research, Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment, University College London, London WC1E 6BT, UK
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2
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Quiñones AE, Henriques GJB, Pen I. Queen–worker conflict can drive the evolution of social polymorphism and split sex ratios in facultatively eusocial life cycles*. Evolution 2019; 74:15-28. [DOI: 10.1111/evo.13844] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/01/2018] [Revised: 08/26/2019] [Accepted: 09/02/2019] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Andrés E. Quiñones
- Theoretical Research in Evolutionary Life Sciences, Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life SciencesUniversity of Groningen 9747 AG Groningen The Netherlands
- Laboratorio de Biología Evolutiva de Vertebrados, Departamento de Ciencias BiológicasUniversidad de los Andes Bogotá Colombia
| | - Gil J. B. Henriques
- Theoretical Research in Evolutionary Life Sciences, Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life SciencesUniversity of Groningen 9747 AG Groningen The Netherlands
- Department of Zoology and Biodiversity Research CentreUniversity of British Columbia Vancouver British Columbia V6T 1Z4 Canada
| | - Ido Pen
- Theoretical Research in Evolutionary Life Sciences, Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life SciencesUniversity of Groningen 9747 AG Groningen The Netherlands
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3
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Pernu TK, Helanterä H. Genetic relatedness and its causal role in the evolution of insect societies. J Biosci 2019. [DOI: 10.1007/s12038-019-9894-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/26/2022]
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4
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Linksvayer TA, Johnson BR. Re-thinking the social ladder approach for elucidating the evolution and molecular basis of insect societies. CURRENT OPINION IN INSECT SCIENCE 2019; 34:123-129. [PMID: 31401545 DOI: 10.1016/j.cois.2019.07.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/02/2019] [Revised: 06/21/2019] [Accepted: 07/03/2019] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
The evolution of large insect societies is a major evolutionary transition that occurred in the long-extinct ancestors of termites, ants, corbiculate bees, and vespid wasps. Researchers have long used 'social ladder thinking': assuming progressive stepwise phenotypic evolution and asserting that extant species with simple societies (e.g. some halictid bees) represent the ancestors of species with complex societies, and thus provide insight into general early steps of eusocial evolution. We discuss how this is inconsistent with data and modern evolutionary 'tree thinking'. Phylogenetic comparative methods with broad sampling provide the best means to make rigorous inferences about ancestral traits and evolutionary transitions that occurred within each lineage, and to determine whether consistent phenotypic and genomic changes occurred across independent lineages.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Brian R Johnson
- Department of Entomology and Nematology, University of California Davis, United States
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5
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Rautiala P, Helanterä H, Puurtinen M. Extended haplodiploidy hypothesis. Evol Lett 2019; 3:263-270. [PMID: 31171982 PMCID: PMC6546379 DOI: 10.1002/evl3.119] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/13/2019] [Accepted: 04/05/2019] [Indexed: 12/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Evolution of altruistic behavior was a hurdle for the logic of Darwinian evolution. Soon after Hamilton formalized the concept of inclusive fitness, which explains how altruism can evolve, he suggested that the high sororal relatedness brought by haplodiploidy could be why Hymenopterans have a high prevalence in eusocial species, and why helpers in Hymenoptera are always female. Later it was noted that in order to capitalize on the high sororal relatedness, helpers would need to direct help toward sisters, and this would bias the population sex ratio. Under a 1:3 males:females sex ratio, the inclusive fitness valuation a female places on her sister, brother, and an own offspring are equal-apparently removing the benefit of helping over independent reproduction. Based on this argumentation, haplodiploidy hypothesis has been considered a red herring. However, here we show that when population sex ratio, cost of altruism, and population growth rate are considered together, haplodiploidy does promote female helping even with female-biased sex ratio, due the lowered cost of altruism in such populations. Our analysis highlights the need to re-evaluate the role of haplodiploidy in the evolution of helping, and the importance of fully exploring the model assumptions when comparing interactions of population sex ratios and social behaviors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Petri Rautiala
- School of Biology University of St Andrews St Andrews KY16 9TH United Kingdom
| | - Heikki Helanterä
- Organismal and Evolutionary Biology Research Programme University of Helsinki PO Box 65 FI-00014 Finland.,Centre of Excellence in Biological Interactions.,Ecology and Genetics Research Unit University of Oulu POB 3000 FI-90014 Finland
| | - Mikael Puurtinen
- Centre of Excellence in Biological Interactions.,Department of Biological and Environmental Science University of Jyvaskyla PO Box 35 FI-40014 Finland
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6
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Affiliation(s)
- Tuomas K. Pernu
- Dept of Philosophy, King's College London London WC2R 2LS UK
- Molecular and Integrative Biosciences Research Programme, Faculty of Biological and Environmental Sciences, Univ. of Helsinki Helsinki Finland
| | - Heikki Helanterä
- Organismal and Evolutionary Biology Research Programme, Univ. of Helsinki Helsinki Finland
- Ecology and Genetics Research Unit, Univ. of Oulu Finland
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7
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Libbrecht R, Oxley PR, Kronauer DJC. Clonal raider ant brain transcriptomics identifies candidate molecular mechanisms for reproductive division of labor. BMC Biol 2018; 16:89. [PMID: 30103762 PMCID: PMC6090591 DOI: 10.1186/s12915-018-0558-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/30/2018] [Accepted: 07/31/2018] [Indexed: 12/02/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Division of labor between reproductive queens and workers that perform brood care is a hallmark of insect societies. However, studies of the molecular basis of this fundamental dichotomy are limited by the fact that the caste of an individual cannot typically be experimentally manipulated at the adult stage. Here we take advantage of the unique biology of the clonal raider ant, Ooceraea biroi, to study brain gene expression dynamics during experimentally induced transitions between reproductive and brood care behavior. RESULTS Introducing larvae that inhibit reproduction and induce brood care behavior causes much faster changes in adult gene expression than removing larvae. In addition, the general patterns of gene expression differ depending on whether ants transition from reproduction to brood care or vice versa, indicating that gene expression changes between phases are cyclic rather than pendular. Finally, we identify genes that could play upstream roles in regulating reproduction and behavior because they show large and early expression changes in one or both transitions. CONCLUSIONS Our analyses reveal that the nature and timing of gene expression changes differ substantially depending on the direction of the transition, and identify a suite of promising candidate molecular regulators of reproductive division of labor that can now be characterized further in both social and solitary animal models. This study contributes to understanding the molecular regulation of reproduction and behavior, as well as the organization and evolution of insect societies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Romain Libbrecht
- Laboratory of Social Evolution and Behavior, The Rockefeller University, 1230 York Avenue, New York, NY, 10065, USA.
- Institute of Organismic and Molecular Evolution, Johannes Gutenberg University, Johannes-von-Müller-Weg 6, 55128, Mainz, Germany.
| | - Peter R Oxley
- Laboratory of Social Evolution and Behavior, The Rockefeller University, 1230 York Avenue, New York, NY, 10065, USA
- Samuel J. Wood Library, Weill Cornell Medicine, 1300 York Avenue, New York, NY, 10065, USA
| | - Daniel J C Kronauer
- Laboratory of Social Evolution and Behavior, The Rockefeller University, 1230 York Avenue, New York, NY, 10065, USA.
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8
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O’Donnell S, Fiocca K, Campbell M, Bulova S, Zelanko P, Velinsky D. Adult nutrition and reproductive physiology: a stable isotope analysis in a eusocial paper wasp (Mischocyttarus mastigophorus, Hymenoptera: Vespidae). Behav Ecol Sociobiol 2018. [DOI: 10.1007/s00265-018-2501-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/03/2023]
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9
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Mitesser O, Poethke HJ, Strohm E, Hovestadt T. The evolution of simultaneous progressive provisioning revisited: extending the model to overlapping generations. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 2017. [DOI: 10.1007/s00265-017-2355-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/19/2022]
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10
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Quiñones AE, Pen I. A unified model of Hymenopteran preadaptations that trigger the evolutionary transition to eusociality. Nat Commun 2017; 8:15920. [PMID: 28643786 PMCID: PMC5490048 DOI: 10.1038/ncomms15920] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/20/2016] [Accepted: 05/12/2017] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
Explaining the origin of eusociality, with strict division of labour between workers and reproductives, remains one of evolutionary biology's greatest challenges. Specific combinations of genetic, behavioural and demographic traits in Hymenoptera are thought to explain their relatively high frequency of eusociality, but quantitative models integrating such preadaptations are lacking. Here we use mathematical models to show that the joint evolution of helping behaviour and maternal sex ratio adjustment can synergistically trigger both a behavioural change from solitary to eusocial breeding, and a demographic change from a life cycle with two reproductive broods to a life cycle in which an unmated cohort of female workers precedes a final generation of dispersing reproductives. Specific suits of preadaptations are particularly favourable to the evolution of eusociality: lifetime monogamy, bivoltinism with male generation overlap, hibernation of mated females and haplodiploidy with maternal sex ratio adjustment. The joint effects of these preadaptations may explain the abundance of eusociality in the Hymenoptera and its virtual absence in other haplodiploid lineages.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrés E. Quiñones
- Theoretical Research in Evolutionary Life Sciences, Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Sciences, University of Groningen, P.O. Box 11103, 9700 CC Groningen, The Netherlands
| | - Ido Pen
- Theoretical Research in Evolutionary Life Sciences, Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Sciences, University of Groningen, P.O. Box 11103, 9700 CC Groningen, The Netherlands
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11
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Farris SM. Insect societies and the social brain. CURRENT OPINION IN INSECT SCIENCE 2016; 15:1-8. [PMID: 27436726 DOI: 10.1016/j.cois.2016.01.010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 32] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/15/2015] [Revised: 01/26/2016] [Accepted: 01/29/2016] [Indexed: 06/06/2023]
Abstract
The 'social brain hypothesis,' the relationship between social behavior and brain size, does not apply to insects. In social insects, especially those of the Order Hymenoptera (ants, bees and wasps), sociality has not always increased individual behavioral repertoires and is associated with only subtle variation in the size of a higher brain center, the mushroom bodies. Rather than sociality, selection for novel visual behavior, perhaps spatial learning, has led to the acquisition of novel visual inputs and profound increases in mushroom body size. This occurred in nonsocial ancestors suggesting that the sensory and cognitive advantages of large mushroom bodies may be preadaptations to sociality. Adaptations of the insect mushroom bodies are more reliably associated with sensory ecology than social behavior.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sarah M Farris
- Department of Biology, West Virginia University, 3139 Life Sciences Building, 53 Campus Drive, Morgantown, WV 26506, USA.
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12
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Bourke AFG. Hamilton's rule and the causes of social evolution. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2014; 369:20130362. [PMID: 24686934 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2013.0362] [Citation(s) in RCA: 99] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Hamilton's rule is a central theorem of inclusive fitness (kin selection) theory and predicts that social behaviour evolves under specific combinations of relatedness, benefit and cost. This review provides evidence for Hamilton's rule by presenting novel syntheses of results from two kinds of study in diverse taxa, including cooperatively breeding birds and mammals and eusocial insects. These are, first, studies that empirically parametrize Hamilton's rule in natural populations and, second, comparative phylogenetic analyses of the genetic, life-history and ecological correlates of sociality. Studies parametrizing Hamilton's rule are not rare and demonstrate quantitatively that (i) altruism (net loss of direct fitness) occurs even when sociality is facultative, (ii) in most cases, altruism is under positive selection via indirect fitness benefits that exceed direct fitness costs and (iii) social behaviour commonly generates indirect benefits by enhancing the productivity or survivorship of kin. Comparative phylogenetic analyses show that cooperative breeding and eusociality are promoted by (i) high relatedness and monogamy and, potentially, by (ii) life-history factors facilitating family structure and high benefits of helping and (iii) ecological factors generating low costs of social behaviour. Overall, the focal studies strongly confirm the predictions of Hamilton's rule regarding conditions for social evolution and their causes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrew F G Bourke
- School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, , Norwich Research Park, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK
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13
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Oxley PR, Ji L, Fetter-Pruneda I, McKenzie SK, Li C, Hu H, Zhang G, Kronauer DJC. The genome of the clonal raider ant Cerapachys biroi. Curr Biol 2014; 24:451-8. [PMID: 24508170 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2014.01.018] [Citation(s) in RCA: 115] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/30/2013] [Revised: 11/26/2013] [Accepted: 01/09/2014] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
Social insects are important models for social evolution and behavior. However, in many species, experimental control over important factors that regulate division of labor, such as genotype and age, is limited. Furthermore, most species have fixed queen and worker castes, making it difficult to establish causality between the molecular mechanisms that underlie reproductive division of labor, the hallmark of insect societies. Here we present the genome of the queenless clonal raider ant Cerapachys biroi, a powerful new study system that does not suffer from these constraints. Using cytology and RAD-seq, we show that C. biroi reproduces via automixis with central fusion and that heterozygosity is lost extremely slowly. As a consequence, nestmates are almost clonally related (r = 0.996). Workers in C. biroi colonies synchronously alternate between reproduction and brood care, and young workers eclose in synchronized cohorts. We show that genes associated with division of labor in other social insects are conserved in C. biroi and dynamically regulated during the colony cycle. With unparalleled experimental control over an individual's genotype and age, and the ability to induce reproduction and brood care, C. biroi has great potential to illuminate the molecular regulation of division of labor.
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Affiliation(s)
- Peter R Oxley
- Laboratory of Insect Social Evolution, The Rockefeller University, 1230 York Avenue, New York, NY 10065, USA.
| | - Lu Ji
- China National Genebank, BGI-Shenzhen, Shenzhen 518083, China
| | - Ingrid Fetter-Pruneda
- Laboratory of Insect Social Evolution, The Rockefeller University, 1230 York Avenue, New York, NY 10065, USA
| | - Sean K McKenzie
- Laboratory of Insect Social Evolution, The Rockefeller University, 1230 York Avenue, New York, NY 10065, USA
| | - Cai Li
- China National Genebank, BGI-Shenzhen, Shenzhen 518083, China
| | - Haofu Hu
- China National Genebank, BGI-Shenzhen, Shenzhen 518083, China
| | - Guojie Zhang
- China National Genebank, BGI-Shenzhen, Shenzhen 518083, China; Centre for Social Evolution, Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Daniel J C Kronauer
- Laboratory of Insect Social Evolution, The Rockefeller University, 1230 York Avenue, New York, NY 10065, USA
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14
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Polidori C, Crottini A, Della Venezia L, Selfa J, Saino N, Rubolini D. Food load manipulation ability shapes flight morphology in females of central-place foraging Hymenoptera. Front Zool 2013; 10:36. [PMID: 23805850 PMCID: PMC3698194 DOI: 10.1186/1742-9994-10-36] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/19/2013] [Accepted: 06/20/2013] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Background Ecological constraints related to foraging are expected to affect the evolution of morphological traits relevant to food capture, manipulation and transport. Females of central-place foraging Hymenoptera vary in their food load manipulation ability. Bees and social wasps modulate the amount of food taken per foraging trip (in terms of e.g. number of pollen grains or parts of prey), while solitary wasps carry exclusively entire prey items. We hypothesized that the foraging constraints acting on females of the latter species, imposed by the upper limit to the load size they are able to transport in flight, should promote the evolution of a greater load-lifting capacity and manoeuvrability, specifically in terms of greater flight muscle to body mass ratio and lower wing loading. Results Our comparative study of 28 species confirms that, accounting for shared ancestry, female flight muscle ratio was significantly higher and wing loading lower in species taking entire prey compared to those that are able to modulate load size. Body mass had no effect on flight muscle ratio, though it strongly and negatively co-varied with wing loading. Across species, flight muscle ratio and wing loading were negatively correlated, suggesting coevolution of these traits. Conclusions Natural selection has led to the coevolution of resource load manipulation ability and morphological traits affecting flying ability with additional loads in females of central-place foraging Hymenoptera. Release from load-carrying constraints related to foraging, which took place with the evolution of food load manipulation ability, has selected against the maintenance of a powerful flight apparatus. This could be the case since investment in flight muscles may have to be traded against other life-history traits, such as reproductive investment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Carlo Polidori
- Departamento de Biodiversidad y Biología Evolutiva, Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales (CSIC), C/ José Gutiérrez Abascal 2, 28006 Madrid, Spain.
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15
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Rabosky ARD, Corl A, Liwanag HEM, Surget-Groba Y, Sinervo B. Direct fitness correlates and thermal consequences of facultative aggregation in a desert lizard. PLoS One 2012; 7:e40866. [PMID: 22844413 PMCID: PMC3402482 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0040866] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/13/2011] [Accepted: 06/18/2012] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Social aggregation is a common behavioral phenomenon thought to evolve through adaptive benefits to group living. Comparing fitness differences between aggregated and solitary individuals in nature--necessary to infer an evolutionary benefit to living in groups--has proven difficult because communally-living species tend to be obligately social and behaviorally complex. However, these differences and the mechanisms driving them are critical to understanding how solitary individuals transition to group living, as well as how and why nascent social systems change over time. Here we demonstrate that facultative aggregation in a reptile (the Desert Night Lizard, Xantusia vigilis) confers direct reproductive success and survival advantages and that thermal benefits of winter huddling disproportionately benefit small juveniles, which can favor delayed dispersal of offspring and the formation of kin groups. Using climate projection models, however, we estimate that future aggregation in night lizards could decline more than 50% due to warmer temperatures. Our results support the theory that transitions to group living arise from direct benefits to social individuals and offer a clear mechanism for the origin of kin groups through juvenile philopatry. The temperature dependence of aggregation in this and other taxa suggests that environmental variation may be a powerful but underappreciated force in the rapid transition between social and solitary behavior.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alison R Davis Rabosky
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, California, United States of America.
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16
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Budrienė A, Budrys E. COMPARISON OF MATING OF TEN EUMENINAE WASP SPECIES WITH A BRIEF REVIEW OF SEXUAL SELECTION THEORIES: A FRAMEWORK FOR FUTURE RESEARCH. ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2012. [DOI: 10.1080/13921657.2007.10512820] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/27/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Anna Budrienė
- a Institute of Ecology of Vilnius University , Akademijos 2, LT-08412 , Vilnius-21 , Lithuania
| | - Eduardas Budrys
- a Institute of Ecology of Vilnius University , Akademijos 2, LT-08412 , Vilnius-21 , Lithuania
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17
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Abstract
Social evolution is a central topic in evolutionary biology, with the evolution of eusociality (societies with altruistic, non-reproductive helpers) representing a long-standing evolutionary conundrum. Recent critiques have questioned the validity of the leading theory for explaining social evolution and eusociality, namely inclusive fitness (kin selection) theory. I review recent and past literature to argue that these critiques do not succeed. Inclusive fitness theory has added fundamental insights to natural selection theory. These are the realization that selection on a gene for social behaviour depends on its effects on co-bearers, the explanation of social behaviours as unalike as altruism and selfishness using the same underlying parameters, and the explanation of within-group conflict in terms of non-coinciding inclusive fitness optima. A proposed alternative theory for eusocial evolution assumes mistakenly that workers' interests are subordinate to the queen's, contains no new elements and fails to make novel predictions. The haplodiploidy hypothesis has yet to be rigorously tested and positive relatedness within diploid eusocial societies supports inclusive fitness theory. The theory has made unique, falsifiable predictions that have been confirmed, and its evidence base is extensive and robust. Hence, inclusive fitness theory deserves to keep its position as the leading theory for social evolution.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrew F G Bourke
- School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK.
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18
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Farris SM, Schulmeister S. Parasitoidism, not sociality, is associated with the evolution of elaborate mushroom bodies in the brains of hymenopteran insects. Proc Biol Sci 2010; 278:940-51. [PMID: 21068044 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2010.2161] [Citation(s) in RCA: 95] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
The social brain hypothesis posits that the cognitive demands of social behaviour have driven evolutionary expansions in brain size in some vertebrate lineages. In insects, higher brain centres called mushroom bodies are enlarged and morphologically elaborate (having doubled, invaginated and subcompartmentalized calyces that receive visual input) in social species such as the ants, bees and wasps of the aculeate Hymenoptera, suggesting that the social brain hypothesis may also apply to invertebrate animals. In a quantitative and qualitative survey of mushroom body morphology across the Hymenoptera, we demonstrate that large, elaborate mushroom bodies arose concurrent with the acquisition of a parasitoid mode of life at the base of the Euhymenopteran (Orussioidea + Apocrita) lineage, approximately 90 Myr before the evolution of sociality in the Aculeata. Thus, sociality could not have driven mushroom body elaboration in the Hymenoptera. Rather, we propose that the cognitive demands of host-finding behaviour in parasitoids, particularly the capacity for associative and spatial learning, drove the acquisition of this evolutionarily novel mushroom body architecture. These neurobehavioural modifications may have served as pre-adaptations for central place foraging, a spatial learning-intensive behaviour that is widespread across the Aculeata and may have contributed to the multiple acquisitions of sociality in this taxon.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sarah M Farris
- Department of Biology, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV 26505, USA.
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19
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Valdespino C. Physiological Constraints and Latitudinal Breeding Season in the Canidae. Physiol Biochem Zool 2007; 80:580-91. [PMID: 17909995 DOI: 10.1086/521802] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 04/17/2007] [Indexed: 11/03/2022]
Abstract
Physiological strategies that maximize reproductive success may be phylogenetically constrained or might have a plastic response to different environmental conditions. Among mammals, Canidae lend themselves to the study of these two influences on reproductive physiology because all the species studied to date have been characterized as monestrous (i.e., a single ovulatory event per breeding season), suggesting a phylogenetic effect. Greater flexibility could be associated with environments that are less seasonal, such as the tropics; however, little is known for many of the species from this region. To compensate for this lack of data, two regressions were done on the length of the reproductive season relative to the latitudinal distribution of a species: one with raw data and another with phylogenetically independent contrasts. There was a significant negative relationship, independent of phylogeny, with canids that have longer breeding seasons occurring at lower latitudes. In contrast, the pervasiveness of monestrus within Canidae appears to be phylogenetically constrained by their pairing/packing life and is most likely associated with monogamy. The persistence of the monestrous condition is supported by a captive study where a tropical canid, the fennec fox, Vulpes zerda, never exhibited polyestrous cycles despite a constant photoperiod (12L : 12D).
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Affiliation(s)
- Carolina Valdespino
- Departamento de Biodiversidad y Ecología Animal, Instituto de Ecología, A. C., Xalapa, 91070 Veracruz, Mexico.
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20
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Toth AL, Varala K, Newman TC, Miguez FE, Hutchison SK, Willoughby DA, Simons JF, Egholm M, Hunt JH, Hudson ME, Robinson GE. Wasp Gene Expression Supports an Evolutionary Link Between Maternal Behavior and Eusociality. Science 2007; 318:441-4. [PMID: 17901299 DOI: 10.1126/science.1146647] [Citation(s) in RCA: 185] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/31/2022]
Abstract
The presence of workers that forgo reproduction and care for their siblings is a defining feature of eusociality and a major challenge for evolutionary theory. It has been proposed that worker behavior evolved from maternal care behavior. We explored this idea by studying gene expression in the primitively eusocial wasp Polistes metricus. Because little genomic information existed for this species, we used 454 sequencing to generate 391,157 brain complementary DNA reads, resulting in robust hits to 3017 genes from the honey bee genome, from which we identified and assayed orthologs of 32 honey bee behaviorally related genes. Wasp brain gene expression in workers was more similar to that in foundresses, which show maternal care, than to that in queens and gynes, which do not. Insulin-related genes were among the differentially regulated genes, suggesting that the evolution of eusociality involved major nutritional and reproductive pathways.
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Affiliation(s)
- Amy L Toth
- Department of Entomology and Institute for Genomic Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA.
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Hines HM, Hunt JH, O'Connor TK, Gillespie JJ, Cameron SA. Multigene phylogeny reveals eusociality evolved twice in vespid wasps. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2007; 104:3295-9. [PMID: 17360641 PMCID: PMC1805554 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0610140104] [Citation(s) in RCA: 85] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Eusocial wasps of the family Vespidae are thought to have derived their social behavior from a common ancestor that had a rudimentary caste-containing social system. In support of this behavioral scenario, the leading phylogenetic hypothesis of Vespidae places the eusocial wasps (subfamilies Stenogastrinae, Polistinae, and Vespinae) as a derived monophyletic clade, thus implying a single origin of eusocial behavior. This perspective has shaped the investigation and interpretation of vespid social evolution for more than two decades. Here we report a phylogeny of Vespidae based on data from four nuclear gene fragments (18S and 28S ribosomal DNA, abdominal-A and RNA polymerase II) and representatives from all six extant subfamilies. In contrast to the current phylogenetic perspective, our results indicate two independent origins of vespid eusociality, once in the clade Polistinae+Vespinae and once in the Stenogastrinae. The stenogastrines appear as an early diverging clade distantly related to the vespines and polistines and thus evolved their distinctive form of social behavior from a different ancestor than that of Polistinae+Vespinae. These results support earlier views based on life history and behavior and have important implications for interpreting transitional stages in vespid social evolution.
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Affiliation(s)
- Heather M. Hines
- Department of Entomology, University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801
| | - James H. Hunt
- Department of Biology, University of Missouri, St. Louis, MO 63121
| | - Timothy K. O'Connor
- Department of Entomology, University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801
| | - Joseph J. Gillespie
- Virginia Bioinformatics Institute at Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061; and
- Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21201
| | - Sydney A. Cameron
- Department of Entomology, University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801
- To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail:
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Zayed A. Effective population size in Hymenoptera with complementary sex determination. Heredity (Edinb) 2005; 93:627-30. [PMID: 15354193 DOI: 10.1038/sj.hdy.6800588] [Citation(s) in RCA: 54] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
Complementary sex determination in the haplodiploid Hymenoptera leads to the production of inviable or effectively sterile diploid males when diploid progeny are homozygous at the sex-determining locus. The production of diploid males reduces the number of females in a population and biases the effective breeding sex ratio in favor of haploid males. This in turn will reduce the effective population size (Ne) of hymenopteran populations with complementary sex determination relative to the expected reductions due to haplodiploidy alone. The effects of diploid male production on Ne in hymenopterans with complementary sex determination when diploid males are either inviable or effectively sterile are assessed theoretically. In both models, low allelic diversity at the sex locus reduces the Ne of hymenopteran populations, and this effect is largest when diploid males are effectively sterile.
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Affiliation(s)
- A Zayed
- Department of Biology, York University, 4700 Keele St, Toronto, Ontario, M3J 1P3, Canada.
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O'Donnell S, Beshers SN. The role of male disease susceptibility in the evolution of haplodiploid insect societies. Proc Biol Sci 2004; 271:979-83. [PMID: 15255054 PMCID: PMC1691683 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2004.2685] [Citation(s) in RCA: 50] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Heterozygosity at loci affecting resistance against parasites can benefit host fitness. We predict that, in haplodiploid species, haploid males will suffer decreased parasite resistance relative to diploid females. We suggest that elevated susceptibility in haploid males has shaped the evolution of social behaviour in haplodiploid species. Male susceptibility will select for behavioural adaptations that limit males' exposure to pathogens and that limit male transmission of pathogens within and between colonies. The relatedness-asymmetry hypothesis that has been advanced to explain female-only workers does not make these predictions. We review the relevant evidence for genetic effects on parasite resistance in insects and summarize empirical evidence that relates to the haploid-susceptibility hypothesis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sean O'Donnell
- Department of Psychology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA.
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Field J, Brace S. Pre-social benefits of extended parental care. Nature 2004; 428:650-2. [PMID: 15071594 DOI: 10.1038/nature02427] [Citation(s) in RCA: 50] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/18/2003] [Accepted: 02/20/2004] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
The evolution of helping, in which some individuals forfeit their own reproduction and help others to reproduce, is a central problem in evolutionary biology. Recently proposed insurance-based mechanisms rely on a pre-existing life history with a long period of offspring dependency relative to the short life expectancies of adult carers: a lone mother's offspring are doomed if she dies young, whereas after a helper dies, other group members can finish rearing the offspring. A critical question, however, is how this life history could evolve in ancestral non-social populations, as offspring survival would then depend on a single, short-lived carer. Here, we resolve this paradox by focusing on the extended parental care inherent in prolonged dependency. We show experimentally that in non-social wasps, extended care can significantly reduce the impact of interspecific parasites. Under extended care, offspring are less vulnerable by the time they are exposed to parasites, and costs of parasitism are reduced because mothers have the option to terminate investment in failing offspring. By experimentally simulating aspects of extended care in a species where it is lacking, we demonstrate that neither benefit requires specialized behaviour. Such benefits could therefore offset the disadvantage of prolonged dependency in non-social species, thereby facilitating the evolution of helping.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jeremy Field
- Department of Biology, University College London, Wolfson House, 4 Stephenson Way, London NW1 2HE, UK.
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Thorne BL, Breisch NL, Muscedere ML. Evolution of eusociality and the soldier caste in termites: influence of intraspecific competition and accelerated inheritance. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2003; 100:12808-13. [PMID: 14555764 PMCID: PMC240700 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2133530100] [Citation(s) in RCA: 88] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/09/2003] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
We present new hypotheses and report experimental evidence for powerful selective forces impelling the evolution of both eusociality and the soldier caste in termites. Termite ancestors likely had a nesting and developmental life history similar to that of the living family Termopsidae, in which foraging does not occur outside the host wood, and nonsoldier helpers retain lifelong options for differentiation into reproductives. A local neighborhood of families that live exclusively within a limited resource results in interactions between conspecific colonies, high mortality of founding reproductives, and opportunities for accelerated inheritance of the nest and population by offspring that differentiate into nondispersing neotenic reproductives. In addition, fertile reproductive soldiers, a type of neotenic previously considered rare and docile, frequently develop in this intraspecific competitive context. They can be highly aggressive in subsequent interactions, supporting the hypothesis that intercolonial battles influenced the evolution of modern sterile termite soldier weaponry and behaviors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Barbara L Thorne
- Department of Entomology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742-4454, USA.
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Abstract
Eusociality is a major evolutionary innovation involving alterations in life history, morphology, and behavior. Advanced eusocial insects, such as ants, termites, and corbiculate bees, cannot provide insights into the earliest stages of eusocial evolution because eusociality in these taxa evolved long ago (in the Cretaceous) and close solitary relatives are no longer extant. In contrast, primitively eusocial insects, such as halictid bees, provide insights into the early stages of eusocial evolution because eusociality has arisen recently and repeatedly. By mapping social behavior onto well-corroborated phylogenies, I show that eusociality has arisen only three times within halictid bees (contrary to earlier estimates of six or more origins). Reversals from eusocial to solitary behavior have occurred as many as 12 times, indicating that social reversals are common in the earliest stages of eusocial evolution. Important attributes of social complexity (e.g., colony size, queen/worker dimorphism) show no obvious association with phylogeny, and some reversals to solitary nesting are related to host-plant switches (from polylecty to oligolecty). These results provide a glimpse of social evolution in its earliest stages and provide insights into the early evolution of advanced eusocial organisms.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bryan N Danforth
- Department of Entomology, Comstock Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853-0901, USA.
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Abstract
Maternal care and female-biased sex ratios are considered by many to be essential prerequisites for the evolution of eusocial behaviors among the hymenoptera. Using population genetic models, I investigate the evolution of genes that have positive maternal effects but negative, direct effects on offspring fitness. I find that, under many conditions, such genes evolve more easily in haplo-diploids than in diplo-diploids. In fact, the conditions are less restrictive than those of kin selection theory, which postulate genes with negative direct effects but positive sib-social effects. For example, the conditions permitting the evolution of maternal effect genes are not affected if females mate multiply, whereas multiple mating reduces the efficacy of kin selection by reducing genetic relatedness within colonies. Inbreeding also differentially facilitates evolution of maternal effect genes in haplo-diploids relative to diplo-diploids, although it does not differentially affect the evolution of sib-altruism genes. Furthermore, when the direct, deleterious pleiotropic effect is restricted to sons, a maternal effect gene can evolve when the beneficial maternal effect is less than half (with inbreeding, much less) of the deleterious effect on sons. For kin selection, however, the sib-social benefits must always exceed the direct costs because genetic relatedness is always less than or equal to 1.0. The results suggest that haplo-diploidy facilitates (1) the evolution of maternal care, and (2) the evolution of maternal effect genes with antagonistic pleiotropic effects on sons. The latter effect may help explain the tendency toward female-biased sex ratios in haplo-diploids, especially those with inbreeding. I conclude that haplo-diploidy not only facilitates the evolution of sister-sister altruism by kin selection but also facilitates the evolution of maternal care and female-biased sex ratios, two prerequisites for eusociality.
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Affiliation(s)
- M J Wade
- Department of Biology, Indiana University, Bloomington 47405, USA.
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