Journal Article

Molecular mechanisms of task allocation in workers of the red imported fire ant, Solenopsis invicta

Starkey, J., Tamborindeguy, C.

2023

Overview

The red imported fire ant Solenopsis invicta is an invasive pest in the USA, eastern Asia, and Australia that causes billions worth of damage where it has been introduced. In the insect colony, workers perform tasks based on their age as well as the subcaste, where the younger workers tend to remain in the nest and tend to the brood while the older workers leave the nest to perform activities such as foraging. In eusocial insects, juvenile hormone has been identified to be a catalyst for behavioral changes among the worker caste, but the involvement of this hormone in S. invicta task allocation has not been investigated. Here, we conducted RNA-seq analyses to identify genes associated with worker division of labor. We compared the expression profiles of foragers and nurses and found 816 differentially expressed genes. We also identified 100 differentially expressed genes between nurses treated with acetone and nurses treated with a juvenile hormone analog. For this study, we focused on the differentially expressed genes between foragers and nurses that were associated with energy metabolism, glycolysis, juvenile hormone synthesis, metabolism, and immunity because these pathways have been identified as differentially expressed between foragers and nurses in different social insects. We also identified changes in gene expression induced by the juvenile hormone analog, some of which were as expected if the juvenile hormone is involved in regulating the shift from nursing to foraging in S. invicta workers. Overall, our results support a potential role of juvenile hormone in S. invicta task transition probably in association with other factors such as insect age or nutritional status which were not controlled in this experiment.

• Publisher: Springer International Publishing,Springer Nature B.V
• Subject: acetone / Age / Australia / Biomedical and Life Sciences / catalysts / Division of labor / East Asia / Energy metabolism / Entomology / Eusociality / Forage / Foraging behavior / Gene expression / gene expression regulation / Genes / Genomes / Glycolysis / immunity / insect castes / insect colonies / Insects / Invasive insects / juvenile hormone analogs / Juvenile hormones / Life Sciences / Molecular modelling / nests / Nurses / Nutritional status / pests / Research Article / sequence analysis / Solenopsis invicta / Workers (insect caste)