Ontogeny of superorganisms: Social control of queen specialization in ants

International audienceThe functioning of biological systems relies on the cooperation of specialized components and understanding the processes that produce such specialization is a major challenge in biology. Here, we study the ontogeny of biological systems at a new phenotypic level: the superorganisms (i.e. insect societies with specialized individuals). We investigate how founding queens, the earliest developmental stage of ant colonies, transition from expressing behavioural pluripotency to becoming strictly specialized in egg production. We demonstrate that the presence of workers both initiates and maintains this queen specialization, and propose that such a social control of queen behaviour is common in ants and regulated by ancestral mechanisms. These findings contradict the traditional view of social insect queens as being intrinsically specialized in egg production and may reshape our understanding of the division of labour in insect societies

Ontogeny of superorganisms: Social control of queen specialization in ants

AbstractThe functioning of biological systems relies on the cooperation of specialized components. Understanding the processes that produce such specialization - the ontogeny of biological systems - is a major challenge in biology. Although biological systems exist at multiple phenotypic scales, most studies of their ontogeny have focused on multicellular organisms. Here we expand our understanding of the ontogeny of biological systems to superorganisms (i.e., insect societies with specialized individuals). Using the black garden ant Lasius niger as a study system, we investigate how founding queens, the earliest developmental stage of ant colonies, transition from expressing a diverse repertoire of behaviors to being strictly specialized in egg production. We demonstrate that the presence of workers is sufficient and necessary to inhibit the behavioral pluripotency, and thus initiate the specialization of queens. We show that this specialization is reversible, as queens revert to expressing behavioral pluripotency upon removal of their workers, even after having been specialized for several years. We report a similar social control of queen behavior in another species, suggesting that it may be common in ants. This is supported by further indications that the behavior and physiology of founding queens may be regulated by ancestral mechanisms. In addition to presenting a novel approach to study the ontogeny of biological systems, our study has the potential to reshape our understanding of the specialization of ant queens, and thus of division of labor in insect societies.</jats:p