Libbrecht Romain, Nadrau Dennis, Foitzik Susanne
Institute of Organismic and Molecular Evolution (IOME), Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Biozentrum I, Hanns Dieter Hüsch Weg 15, 55128 Mainz, Germany.
Institute of Organismic and Molecular Evolution (IOME), Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Biozentrum I, Hanns Dieter Hüsch Weg 15, 55128 Mainz, Germany.
iScience. 2020 Feb 21;23(2):100846. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2020.100846. Epub 2020 Jan 17.
In many organisms, circadian rhythms and associated oscillations in gene expression are controlled by post-translational modifications of histone proteins. Although epigenetic mechanisms influence key aspects of insect societies, their implication in regulating circadian rhythms has not been studied in social insects. Here we ask whether histone acetylation plays a role in adjusting circadian activity in the ant Temnothorax longispinosus. We characterized activity patterns in 20 colonies to reveal that these ants exhibit a diurnal rhythm in colony-level activity and can rapidly respond to changes in the light regime. Then we fed T. longispinosus colonies with C646, a chemical inhibitor of histone acetyltransferases, to show that treated colonies lost their circadian rhythmicity and failed to adjust their activity to the light regime. These findings suggest a role for histone acetylation in controlling rhythmicity in ants and implicate epigenetic processes in the regulation of circadian rhythms in a social context.
在许多生物体中，昼夜节律以及基因表达中的相关振荡是由组蛋白的翻译后修饰所控制的。尽管表观遗传机制影响昆虫社会的关键方面，但它们在调节昼夜节律中的作用尚未在社会性昆虫中得到研究。在此，我们探究组蛋白乙酰化是否在调节长刺蚁（Temnothorax longispinosus）的昼夜活动中发挥作用。我们对20个蚁群的活动模式进行了表征，以揭示这些蚂蚁在蚁群水平的活动中呈现出昼夜节律，并且能够迅速响应光照条件的变化。然后，我们给长刺蚁蚁群喂食C646（一种组蛋白乙酰转移酶的化学抑制剂），结果显示，经过处理的蚁群失去了昼夜节律，并且无法根据光照条件调整其活动。这些发现表明组蛋白乙酰化在控制蚂蚁的节律性中发挥作用，并暗示表观遗传过程在社会背景下对昼夜节律的调节作用。
