Neuropeptides specify and reprogram division of labor in the leafcutter ant <i>Atta cephalotes</i>.

ABSTRACT: Social insects offer powerful models to investigate the mechanistic foundation of elaborate individual behaviors comprising a cooperative community. Workers of the leafcutter ant genus Atta provide an extreme example of behavioral segregation among many phenotypically distinct worker types. We utilize the complex worker system of Atta cephalotes to test the molecular underpinnings of behavioral programming and, in particular, the extent of plasticity to reprogramming. We identify specific neuropeptides as mediators of worker division of labor in A. cephalotes, finding two neuropeptides associated with characteristic behaviors of leafcutting and of brood care. Manipulation via genetic knockdown or by injection of these neuropeptides led to stark loss or gain of each beh

SUBMITTER: Gilbert MB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11581030 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature