Dipartimento di Biologia Evoluzionistica, Università degli Studi di Firenze, Italy.
Chem Senses. 2011 Oct;36(8):715-23. doi: 10.1093/chemse/bjr042. Epub 2011 Jun 1.
A colony of social insects is like a fortress where access is allowed only to colony members. The epicuticular mixture of hydrocarbons has been widely reported to be involved in nestmate recognition in insects. However, recent studies have shown that polar compounds (mainly peptides) are also present, mixed with hydrocarbons, on the cuticle of various insects, including the paper wasps of the genus Polistes. As these polar compounds are variable among Polistes species and are perceived by the wasps, this cuticular fraction could also be involved in nestmate recognition. Through MALDI-TOF (Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption Ionization Time of Flight) mass spectrometry analysis, we assessed, for the first time, the intercolonial variability of the cuticular polar fraction of Polistes dominulus in order to evaluate its reliability as source of nestmate recognition cues. We then tested through behavioral assays the importance of the 2 isolated fractions (apolar and polar) in nestmate recognition by presenting them separately to colonies of P. dominulus. Our results showed that the cuticular polar compounds are not colony specific and they are not used by paper wasps to discriminate nestmates from non-colony members. On the contrary, we confirmed that the isolated cuticular hydrocarbons are the chemical mediators prompting nestmate recognition in paper wasps.
一个社会性昆虫群体就像一个堡垒，只有群体成员才能进入。昆虫的表皮碳氢化合物混合物已被广泛报道参与了同种识别。然而，最近的研究表明，极性化合物（主要是肽）也存在于各种昆虫的表皮中，与碳氢化合物混合在一起，包括 Polistes 属的纸巢黄蜂。由于这些极性化合物在 Polistes 物种之间存在差异，并且被黄蜂感知到，因此这一表皮部分也可能参与同种识别。通过 MALDI-TOF（基质辅助激光解吸电离飞行时间）质谱分析，我们首次评估了 Polistes dominulus 表皮极性部分的种间变异性，以评估其作为同种识别线索来源的可靠性。然后，我们通过行为测试分别向 P. dominulus 群体呈现 2 个分离的部分（非极性和极性），以测试它们在同种识别中的重要性。我们的结果表明，表皮的极性化合物不具有群体特异性，也不被纸巢黄蜂用来区分巢内成员和非巢内成员。相反，我们证实分离的表皮碳氢化合物是促使纸巢黄蜂识别同种的化学介质。
