数字农科院2.0

Unexpected worker mating and colony-founding in a superorganism

文献类型： 外文期刊

作者： Mingsheng Zhuang;Thomas J. Colgan;Yulong Guo;Zhengyi Zhang;Fugang Liu;Zhongyan Xia;Xueyan Dai;Zhihao Zhang;Yuanjian Li;Liuhao Wang;Jin Xu;Yueqin Guo;Yingping Qu;Jun Yao;Huipeng Yang;Fan Yang;Xiaoying Li;Jun Guo;Mark J.F. Brown;Jilian Li

作者机构：

期刊名称： Nature Communications

ISSN： 2041-1723

年卷期： 2023 年 14 卷 1 期

页码：

收录情况： SCIE（2023版）

摘要： The emergence of caste-differentiated colonies, which have been defined as ‘superorganisms’, in ants, bees, and wasps represents a major transition in evolution. Lifetime mating commitment by queens, pre-imaginal caste determination and lifetime unmatedness of workers are key features of these animal societies. Workers in superorganismal species like honey bees and many ants have consequently lost, or retain only vestigial spermathecal structures. However, bumble bee workers retain complete spermathecae despite 25-40 million years since their origin of superorganismality, which remains an evolutionary mystery. Here, we show (i) that bumble bee workers retain queen-like reproductive traits, being able to mate and produce colonies, underlain by queen-like gene expression, (ii) the social conditions required for worker mating, and (iii) that these abilities may be selected for by early queen-loss in these annual species. These results challenge the idea of lifetime worker unmatedness in superorganisms, and provide an exciting new tool for the conservation of endangered bumble bee species.

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