Soldier Morphogenesis in the Damp‐<scp>W</scp>ood Termite Is Regulated by the Insulin Signaling Pathway

Hattori, Akiko; Sugime, Yasuhiro; Sasa, Chifune; Miyakawa, Hitoshi; Ishikawa, Yuki; Miyazaki, Shôzo; Okada, Yasukazu; Cornette, Richard; Lavine, Laura Corley; Emlen, Douglas J.; Koshikawa, Shigeyuki; Miura, Toru

doi:10.1002/jez.b.22501

Cited by 52 publications

(51 citation statements)

References 80 publications

(108 reference statements)

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“…takasagoensis have reduced mandibles and enlarged frontal glands which they use to spray chemicals against enemies. Importantly, manipulation experiments for studying caste differentiation, such as hormone application and RNA interference techniques, have been established in these species (for example, Ogino et al [19] and Hattori et al [20] for H . sjostedti , Tsuchiya et al [21] and Nambu et al [22] for R .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Construction and Characterization of Normalized cDNA Libraries by 454 Pyrosequencing and Estimation of DNA Methylation Levels in Three Distantly Related Termite Species

et al. 2013

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In termites, division of labor among castes, categories of individuals that perform specialized tasks, increases colony-level productivity and is the key to their ecological success. Although molecular studies on caste polymorphism have been performed in termites, we are far from a comprehensive understanding of the molecular basis of this phenomenon. To facilitate future molecular studies, we aimed to construct expressed sequence tag (EST) libraries covering wide ranges of gene repertoires in three representative termite species, Hodotermopsis sjostedti , Reticulitermessperatus and Nasutitermestakasagoensis . We generated normalized cDNA libraries from whole bodies, except for guts containing microbes, of almost all castes, sexes and developmental stages and sequenced them with the 454 GS FLX titanium system. We obtained >1.2 million quality-filtered reads yielding >400 million bases for each of the three species. Isotigs, which are analogous to individual transcripts, and singletons were produced by assembling the reads and annotated using public databases. Genes related to juvenile hormone, which plays crucial roles in caste differentiation of termites, were identified from the EST libraries by BLAST search. To explore the potential for DNA methylation, which plays an important role in caste differentiation of honeybees, tBLASTn searches for DNA methyltransferases (dnmt1, dnmt2 and dnmt3) and methyl-CpG binding domain (mbd) were performed against the EST libraries. All four of these genes were found in the H . sjostedti library, while all except dnmt3 were found in R . speratus and N . takasagoensis . The ratio of the observed to the expected CpG content (CpG O/E), which is a proxy for DNA methylation level, was calculated for the coding sequences predicted from the isotigs and singletons. In all of the three species, the majority of coding sequences showed depletion of CpG O/E (less than 1), and the distributions of CpG O/E were bimodal, suggesting the presence of DNA methylation.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Construction and Characterization of Normalized cDNA Libraries by 454 Pyrosequencing and Estimation of DNA Methylation Levels in Three Distantly Related Termite Species

et al. 2013

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“…Termite orthologs of the IIS pathway, including HsjInR, HsjPKB/Akt, were up-regulated during soldier morphogenesis 130 . It is believed that insulin signaling could interact with JH and may play an important role in mandible elongat i on during soldier formation 130.…”

Section: Regulation Of Soldier Caste Differentiationmentioning

confidence: 95%

“…Recently, it has been demonstrated that soldier morphogenesis is associated with the insulin/insulin-like growth factor signaling (IIS) pathway in the termite H. sjostedti 130. Termite orthologs of the IIS pathway, including HsjInR, HsjPKB/Akt, were up-regulated during soldier morphogenesis 130 .…”

Section: Regulation Of Soldier Caste Differentiationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…More importantly, the soldier-first lineages provide important complementary additions to comparative models available for study social evolution, because of their distinct biological and ecological traits. Despite a growing interest in the study of soldier castes 66, 130, 150, 167, 171, the evolution and regulation of soldier caste in eusocial lineages remains unclear. For instance, it is still unknown how JH and/or pheromone regulate soldier caste differentiation in snapping shrimps, gall-dwelling thrips or eusocial aphids.…”

Section: Perspectives and Questionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Soldiers in Societies: Defense, Regulation, and Evolution

Lan¹,

Zhou²

2014

Int. J. Biol. Sci.

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The presence of reproductively altruistic castes is one of the primary traits of the eusocial societies. Adaptation and regulation of the sterile caste, to a certain extent, drives the evolution of eusociality. Depending on adaptive functions of the first evolved sterile caste, eusocial societies can be categorized into the worker-first and soldier-first lineages, respectively. The former is marked by a worker caste as the first evolved altruistic caste, whose primary function is housekeeping, and the latter is highlighted by a sterile soldier caste as the first evolved altruistic caste, whose task is predominantly colony defense. The apparent functional differences between these two fundamentally important castes suggest worker-first and soldier-first eusociality are potentially driven by a suite of distinctively different factors. Current studies of eusocial evolution have been focused largely on the worker-first Hymenoptera, whereas understanding of soldier-first lineages including termites, eusocial aphids, gall-dwelling thrips, and snapping shrimp, is greatly lacking. In this review, we summarize the current state of knowledge on biology, morphology, adaptive functions, and caste regulation of the soldier caste. In addition, we discuss the biological, ecological and genetic factors that might contribute to the evolution of distinct caste systems within eusocial lineages.

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“…In these cases, JH titers in workers might be suppressed to lower levels by the presence of soldiers (Figure 5D). Since the social interactions are suggested to affect the expression patterns of genes that were shown to regulate the soldier-specific morphogenesis (Koshikawa et al, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2010; Hattori et al, 2013; Toga et al, 2012, 2013), the relationships between those gene expression patterns and social interactions will be clarified sooner or later.…”

Section: Juvenile Hormone—an Endocrine Mediator Between the Social Inmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social interactions affecting caste development through physiological actions in termites

et al. 2014

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A colony of social insects is not only an aggregation of individuals but also a functional unit. To achieve adaptive social behavior in fluctuating environmental conditions, in addition to coordination of physiological status in each individual, the whole colony is coordinated by interactions among colony members. The study on the regulation of social-insect colonies is termed “social physiology.” Termites, a major group of social insects, exhibit many interesting phenomena related to social physiology, such as mechanisms of caste regulation in a colony. In their colonies, there are different types of individuals, i.e., castes, which show distinctive phenotypes specialized in specific colony tasks. Termite castes comprise reproductives, soldiers and workers, and the caste composition can be altered depending on circumstances. For the regulation of caste compositions, interactions among individuals, i.e., social interactions, are thought to be important. In this article, we review previous studies on the adaptive meanings and those on the proximate mechanisms of the caste regulation in termites, and try to understand those comprehensively in terms of social physiology. Firstly, we summarize classical studies on the social interactions. Secondly, previous studies on the pheromone substances that mediate the caste regulatory mechanisms are overviewed. Then, we discuss the roles of a physiological factor, juvenile hormone (JH) in the regulation of caste differentiation. Finally, we introduce the achievements of molecular studies on the animal sociality (i.e., sociogenomics) in terms of social physiology. By comparing the proximate mechanisms of social physiology in termites with those in hymenopterans, we try to get insights into the general principles of social physiology in social animals.

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Soldier Morphogenesis in the Damp‐Wood Termite Is Regulated by the Insulin Signaling Pathway

Cited by 52 publications

References 80 publications

Construction and Characterization of Normalized cDNA Libraries by 454 Pyrosequencing and Estimation of DNA Methylation Levels in Three Distantly Related Termite Species

Construction and Characterization of Normalized cDNA Libraries by 454 Pyrosequencing and Estimation of DNA Methylation Levels in Three Distantly Related Termite Species

The Soldiers in Societies: Defense, Regulation, and Evolution

Social interactions affecting caste development through physiological actions in termites

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