Reeve H K
Section of Neurobiology and Behaviour, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853.
Nature. 1992 Jul 9;358(6382):147-9. doi: 10.1038/358147a0.
Evolutionary conflicts of interest are expected to arise in genetically diverse social groups. In eusocial insect societies, a potential conflict exists between the queen and her workers over how active the workers should be, and evidence exists that queen aggression increases activity levels of her lazier workers. Here I provide evidence that queen aggression (shoving) in laboratory colonies of the eusocial mammal, the naked mole-rat (Heterocephalus glaber), is a convergently evolved manifestation of queen-worker conflict over worker activity. Queen-initiated shoves activate inherently lazy workers, which tend to be larger and/or less related to the queen than are infrequently shoved, industrious workers. In addition, queen removal selectively depresses the activity of workers that are larger and less related to her. Finally, queen shoving and worker inactivity are pronounced when colonies are satiated but not when colonies are hungry, indicating that the underlying 'work-conflict' is highly context-specific.
在基因多样的社会群体中，预计会出现利益的进化冲突。在群居昆虫社会中，蚁后与其工蚁之间在工蚁应保持多活跃程度上存在潜在冲突，且有证据表明蚁后的攻击行为会提高其较懒惰工蚁的活跃水平。在此，我提供证据表明，在群居哺乳动物裸鼹鼠（Heterocephalus glaber）的实验室群体中，蚁后的攻击行为（推搡）是蚁后与工蚁在工蚁活动方面冲突的趋同进化表现。蚁后发起的推搡会激活生性懒惰的工蚁，这些工蚁往往比不常被推搡、勤劳的工蚁体型更大和/或与蚁后的亲缘关系更远。此外，移除蚁后会选择性地抑制那些体型更大且与她亲缘关系更远的工蚁的活动。最后，当群体饱腹时，蚁后的推搡和工蚁的不活动行为很明显，但群体饥饿时则不然，这表明潜在的“工作冲突”具有高度的情境特异性。
