Research & Collections, North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, 11 W. Jones St, Raleigh, NC 27601, USA; Department of Biological Sciences, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA.
School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287, USA.
Curr Opin Insect Sci. 2017 Aug;22:79-84. doi: 10.1016/j.cois.2017.05.017. Epub 2017 Jun 3.
A reproductive division of labor is a definitive characteristic of eusocial insect societies and it requires a means through which colony members can assess the presence and productivity of reproductive individuals. Cuticular hydrocarbons are the primary means of doing so across eusocial hymenopterans. However, recent experimental work presents conflicting views on how these chemical signals function, are interpreted by workers, and evolve. These recent advances include demonstrations of hydrocarbons as evolutionarily conserved 'queen pheromones' and as species-divergent 'fertility signals' used by both queens and workers. In this review, we synthesize conflicting studies into an evolutionary framework suggesting a transition of reproductive communication from cue-like signature mixtures, to learned fertility signals, to innate queen pheromones that evolved across eusocial insects.
生殖分工是真社会性昆虫社会的一个明确特征，它需要一种手段，使群体成员能够评估生殖个体的存在和生产力。在真社会性膜翅目昆虫中，表皮碳氢化合物是主要的手段。然而，最近的实验工作提出了关于这些化学信号如何发挥作用、被工蜂解释以及如何进化的相互矛盾的观点。这些最新进展包括证明碳氢化合物是进化上保守的“蜂王信息素”，以及作为由蜂王和工蜂使用的具有物种差异的“生育信号”。在这篇综述中，我们将相互矛盾的研究综合到一个进化框架中，表明生殖通讯从类似线索的特征混合物，到学习的生育信号，再到在真社会性昆虫中进化而来的先天的蜂王信息素，经历了一个转变。
