Epigenetics Institute and Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA; Department of Urology and Institute of Neuropathology, Medical Center-University of Freiburg, Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany.
Epigenetics Institute and Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.
Cell. 2021 Nov 11;184(23):5807-5823.e14. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2021.10.006. Epub 2021 Nov 4.
Behavioral plasticity is key to animal survival. Harpegnathos saltator ants can switch between worker and queen-like status (gamergate) depending on the outcome of social conflicts, providing an opportunity to study how distinct behavioral states are achieved in adult brains. Using social and molecular manipulations in live ants and ant neuronal cultures, we show that ecdysone and juvenile hormone drive molecular and functional differences in the brains of workers and gamergates and direct the transcriptional repressor Kr-h1 to different target genes. Depletion of Kr-h1 in the brain caused de-repression of "socially inappropriate" genes: gamergate genes were upregulated in workers, whereas worker genes were upregulated in gamergates. At the phenotypic level, loss of Kr-h1 resulted in the emergence of worker-specific behaviors in gamergates and gamergate-specific traits in workers. We conclude that Kr-h1 is a transcription factor that maintains distinct brain states established in response to socially regulated hormones.
行为可塑性是动物生存的关键。哈帕格诺斯盐沼蚁可以根据社会冲突的结果在工蚁和蚁后样状态（生殖隔）之间切换，为研究不同的行为状态如何在成年大脑中实现提供了机会。我们使用活体蚂蚁和蚂蚁神经元培养物中的社会和分子操作，表明蜕皮激素和保幼激素驱动工蚁和生殖隔大脑中的分子和功能差异，并将转录抑制因子 Kr-h1 引导到不同的靶基因。大脑中 Kr-h1 的耗竭导致“社会上不适当”基因的去抑制：生殖隔基因在工蚁中上调，而工蚁基因在生殖隔中上调。在表型水平上，Kr-h1 的缺失导致生殖隔出现工蚁特异性行为，而工蚁出现生殖隔特异性特征。我们得出结论，Kr-h1 是一种转录因子，可维持对社会调节激素做出反应而建立的不同大脑状态。
