Age-dependent release of and response to alarm pheromone in a ponerine ant

Pokorny, Tamara; Sieber, Lisa-Marie; Hofferberth, John E.; Bernadou, Abel; Rüther, Joachim

doi:10.1242/jeb.218040

Cited by 10 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 73 publications

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“…1C; Table S1). This suggests increased responsiveness to alarm pheromones with age in clonal raider ants, recapitulating prior observations in other ant species and honeybees ( 11 , 12 , 16 ).…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 88%

Pheromone representation in the ant antennal lobe changes with age

Hart,

Lopes,

Frank

et al. 2024

Preprint

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While the neural basis of age-related decline has been extensively studied (1–3), less is known about changes in neural function during the pre-senescent stages of adulthood. Adult neural plasticity is likely a key factor in social insect age polyethism, where individuals perform different tasks as they age and divide labor in an age-dependent manner (4–9). Primarily, workers transition from nursing to foraging tasks (5, 10), become more aggressive, and more readily display alarm behavior (11–16) as they get older. While it is unknown how these behavioral dynamics are neurally regulated, they could partially be generated by altered salience of behaviorally relevant stimuli (4, 6, 7). Here, we investigated how odor coding in the antennal lobe (AL) changes with age in the context of alarm pheromone communication in the clonal raider ant (Ooceraea biroi) (17). Similar to other social insects (11, 12, 16), older ants responded more rapidly to alarm pheromones, the chemical signals for danger. Using whole-AL calcium imaging (18), we then mapped odor representations for five general odorants and two alarm pheromones in young and old ants. Alarm pheromones were represented sparsely at all ages. However, alarm pheromone responses within individual glomeruli changed with age, either increasing or decreasing. Only two glomeruli became sensitized to alarm pheromones with age, while at the same time becoming desensitized to general odorants. Our results suggest that the heightened response to alarm pheromones in older ants occurs via increased sensitivity in these two core glomeruli, illustrating the importance of sensory modulation in social insect division of labor and age-associated behavioral plasticity.

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Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 88%

Pheromone representation in the ant antennal lobe changes with age

Hart,

Lopes,

Frank

et al. 2024

Preprint

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“…Some alarm pheromones are multicomponent, and sometimes a single chemical compound is sufficient to induce a behavioral effect (Blum 1969). Components of the alarm pheromone are generally volatile, low molecular weight compounds, often terpenes, ketones, and aldehydes (Amoore et al 1969;Blum 1969;Brückner et al 2018;Pokorny et al 2020;Han et al 2022). Alarm behaviors, which are triggered by alarm pheromones, are robust, innate, and present across ant species.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The alarm pheromone and alarm response of the clonal raider ant

Lopes

Frank

Kárpáti

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Ants communicate via an arsenal of different pheromones produced in a variety of exocrine glands. For example, ants release alarm pheromones in response to danger to alert their nestmates and to trigger behavioral alarm responses. Here we characterize the alarm pheromone and the alarm response of the clonal raider antOoceraea biroi, a species that is amenable to laboratory studies but for which no pheromones have been identified. During an alarm response, ants quickly become unsettled, leave their nest pile, and are sometimes initially attracted to the source of alarm, but ultimately move away from it. We find that the alarm pheromone is released from the head of the ant and identify the putative alarm pheromone as a blend of two compounds found in the head, 4-methyl-3-heptanone and 4-methyl-3-heptanol. These compounds are sufficient to induce alarm behavior alone and in combination. They elicit similar, though slightly different behavioral features of the alarm response, with 4-methyl-3-heptanone being immediately repulsive and 4-methyl-3-heptanol being initially attractive before causing ants to move away. The behavioral response to these compounds in combination is dose-dependent, with ants becoming unsettled and attracted to the source of alarm pheromone at low concentrations and repulsed at high concentrations. While 4-methyl-3-heptanone and 4-methyl-3-heptanol are known alarm pheromones in other more distantly related ant species, this is the first report of the chemical identity of a pheromone inO. biroi, and the first alarm pheromone identified in the genusOoceraea. Identification of a pheromone that triggers a robust, consistent, and conserved behavior, like the alarm pheromone, provides an avenue to dissect the behavioral and neuronal mechanisms underpinning chemical communication.

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“…It should be noted, however, that the adaptiveness of fast, efficient information transfer is highly context dependent. In response to predation, for example, insect colonies are likely to benefit from rapid alarm propagation that can quickly marshal colony defences [ 50 , 51 ], whereas rapid information transfer may be less valuable in a foraging context. Instead, the regulation of information transmission in response to environmental feedback is key to ensuring worker effort is divided according to the quality of resources [ 52 ], and colonies that show restraint in foraging efforts can often be more successful [ 53 , 54 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Behavioural variation among workers promotes feed-forward loops in a simulated insect colony

2022

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Coordinated responses in eusocial insect colonies arise from worker interaction networks that enable collective processing of ecologically relevant information. Previous studies have detected a structural motif in these networks known as the feed-forward loop, which functions to process information in other biological regulatory networks (e.g. transcriptional networks). However, the processes that generate feed-forward loops among workers and the consequences for information flow within the colony remain largely unexplored. We constructed an agent-based model to investigate how individual variation in activity and movement shaped the production of feed-forward loops in a simulated insect colony. We hypothesized that individual variation along these axes would generate feed-forward loops by driving variation in interaction frequency among workers. We found that among-individual variation in activity drove over-representation of feed-forward loops in the interaction networks by determining the directionality of interactions. However, despite previous work linking feed-forward loops with efficient information transfer, activity variation did not promote faster or more efficient information flow, thus providing no support for the hypothesis that feed-forward loops reflect selection for enhanced collective functioning. Conversely, individual variation in movement trajectory, despite playing no role in generating feed-forward loops, promoted fast and efficient information flow by linking together otherwise unconnected regions of the nest.

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Age-dependent release of and response to alarm pheromone in a ponerine ant

Cited by 10 publications

References 73 publications

Pheromone representation in the ant antennal lobe changes with age

Pheromone representation in the ant antennal lobe changes with age

The alarm pheromone and alarm response of the clonal raider ant

Behavioural variation among workers promotes feed-forward loops in a simulated insect colony

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