Diversity and Evolution of Caste Patterns

Roisin, Yves

doi:10.1007/978-94-017-3223-9_5

Cited by 234 publications

(284 citation statements)

References 97 publications

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“…Although workers from the apterous line commonly reproduce in Mastotermitidae and most Rhinotermitidae, this potential is greatly reduced in the higher termites (Termitidae) [38] (figure 1). The workers of the latter clearly are an altruistic caste that is highly engaged in brood care [39] (figure 1b), and they have few opportunities to reproduce [37]. Higher termites can have colony sizes of up to a few million individuals with sophisticated division of labour (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Brood care and social evolution in termites

et al. 2012

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Cooperative brood care is assumed to be the common driving factor leading to sociality. While this seems to be true for social Hymenoptera and many cooperatively breeding vertebrates, the importance of brood care for the evolution of eusociality in termites is unclear. A first step in elucidating this problem is an assessment of the ancestral condition in termites. We investigated this by determining the overall level of brood care behaviour across four termite species that cover the phylogenetic diversity of the lower termites. Brood care was low in the three species (all from different families) that had an ancestral wood-dwelling lifestyle of living in a single piece of wood that serves as food and shelter. In the fourth species, a lower termite that evolved outside foraging, brood care was more common. Together with data for higher termites, this suggests that brood care in termites only becomes important when switching from a wood-dwelling to a foraging lifestyle. These results imply that early social evolution in termites was driven by benefits of increased defence, while eusociality in Hymenoptera and cooperative breeding in birds and mammals are primarily based on brood care.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Brood care and social evolution in termites

et al. 2012

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“…We conducted a literature search using the keywords "termite caste system" in the ISI Web of Knowledge, or by referring to literature cited by Roisin (2000), who reviewed the current status of the data on termite caste systems. Altogether, our dataset includes the outputs of 27 papers (Table S1).…”

Section: Literature Surveymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In termites, both sexes are diploid and the sex of helpers (workers and soldiers) is not influenced by relatedness asymmetries. In the basal termite families Kalotermitidae and Termopsidae, workers (or pseudergates) and soldiers have sex ratios that are either equal or only slightly biased (Roisin 2000). However, this ancestral condition has evolved into strongly biased sex ratio in many Termitidae and to a lesser extent in the Hodotermitidae and Rhinotermitidae, with many species having soldiers of only one sex and workers with both sexes (Roisin 2000).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It is widely considered that the soldier caste arose only once in the common ancestor of termites (Roisin 2000). Soldiers are the only caste that is always permanently sterile, although some soldierlike reproductives occasionally occur in Zootermopsis species (Myles 1986;Thorne 1997;Roisin 2000). Noirot (1951) was the first to report a skewed sex ratio in soldiers, and this was followed shortly by the discovery of the phenomenon in a further 30 species within the 4 Termitidae (Noirot 1955).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Skewed soldier sex ratio in termites: testing the size-threshold hypothesis

2012

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Social insect colonies contain multiple phenotypes, i.e. castes, and this caste polyphenism is often linked to sexual dimorphism. Unlike social hymenopterans, both termite sexes are diploid and contribute to helper-type tasks within the colony. Nonetheless, a biased sex ratio is frequently observed in termites, especially in soldiers. To explain this bias in soldier sex ratio, Matsuura (2006) postulated the existence of a size threshold for workers molting into soldiers. Under the influence of sexual size dimorphism (SSD), such a threshold was considered to indirectly favor one sex. We conducted a literature survey of sex ratio among termite soldiers and tested this size-threshold hypothesis using data for 67 termite species from a variety of termite lineages. We demonstrated the existence of a size threshold for individuals molting into soldiers, resulting in the acquisition of soldiers of only one sex in species exhibiting strong SSD. In species exhibiting weak SSD, the size threshold skews the sex ratio of soldiers, but does not necessarily cause the loss of one sex. Finally, we observed a prevalence of single-sex soldiers in the Termitidae, regardless of SSD, suggesting that the ancestral developmental mechanisms that constrain soldier differentiation from one sex are maintained in certain extant species.

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Domino Reaction Encoded Heterogeneous Colloidal Microswarm with On‐Demand Morphological Adaptability

Jin

Yuan

et al. 2021

Advanced Materials

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Emulating natural swarm intelligence with group‐level functionality in artificial micro/nanorobotic systems offers an opportunity to sublimate the limited functions of individuals and revolutionize their applications. However, achieving synchronous operation of microswarms with environmental adaptability and cooperative tasking capability remains a challenge. Here, an adaptive and heterogeneous colloidal magnetic microswarm with domino reaction encoded cooperative functions is presented. Through programming external magnetic fields, the system self‐organizes into two swarm states, that is, vortex and ribbon microswarms, which can switch between each other reversibly within seconds, allowing to traverse tortuous, branched, and confined environments through adaptive morphological transformation. By specializing subgroups of building blocks with separate functions, cooperative tasking capability is integrated into the heterogeneous system following a “division of labor” manner. Given targeted therapy as a proof‐of‐concept task, the coordinated delivery of heterogeneous colloidal system across a complex environment with an access rate higher than 90% is demonstrated, and the specialization and cooperation between building blocks to disrupt multiple growth pathways of cancer cells via domino reaction are realized. The reconfigurable microswarm with hierarchical functionality presents a bioinspired approach to adapt to environmental variations and address multitasking requirements, which advances the development of microrobotic swarms and promises major benefits in biomedical fields.

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Diversity and Evolution of Caste Patterns

Cited by 234 publications

References 97 publications

Brood care and social evolution in termites

Brood care and social evolution in termites

Skewed soldier sex ratio in termites: testing the size-threshold hypothesis

Domino Reaction Encoded Heterogeneous Colloidal Microswarm with On‐Demand Morphological Adaptability

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