A diapause pathway underlies the gyne phenotype in Polistes wasps, revealing an evolutionary route to caste-containing insect societies.

ABSTRACT: Colonies of social wasps, ants, and bees are characterized by the production of two phenotypes of female offspring, workers that remain at their natal nest and nonworkers that are potential colony reproductives of the next generation. The phenotype difference includes morphology and is fixed during larval development in ants, honey bees, and some social wasps, all of which represent an advanced state of sociality. Paper wasps (Polistes) lack morphological castes and are thought to more closely resemble an ancestral state of sociality wherein the phenotype difference between workers and nonworkers is established only during adult life. We address an alternative hypothesis: a bias toward the potential reproductive (gyne) phenotype among Polistes female offspring occurs during larval developm

SUBMITTER: Hunt JH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1955821 | biostudies-literature | 2007 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature