Division of labour and colony efficiency in social insects: effects of interactions between genetic architecture, colony kin structure and rate of perturbations.

ABSTRACT: The efficiency of social insect colonies critically depends on their ability to efficiently allocate workers to the various tasks which need to be performed. While numerous models have investigated the mechanisms allowing an efficient colony response to external changes in the environment and internal perturbations, little attention has been devoted to the genetic architecture underlying task specialization. We used artificial evolution to compare the performances of three simple genetic architectures underlying within-colony variation in response thresholds of workers to five tasks. In the 'deterministic mapping' system, the thresholds of individuals for each of the five tasks is strictly genetically determined. In the second genetic architecture ('probabilistic mapping'), the genes only

SUBMITTER: Waibel M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1634781 | biostudies-literature | 2006 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature