Exploring the role of juvenile hormone and vitellogenin in reproduction and social behavior in bumble bees.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The genetic and physiological pathways regulating behavior in solitary species are hypothesized to have been co-opted to regulate social behavior in social species. One classic example is the interaction between vitellogenin (an egg-yolk and storage protein) and juvenile hormone, which are positively correlated in most insect species but have modified interactions in highly eusocial insects. In some of these species (including some termites, ants, and the honey bee), juvenile hormone and vitellogenin levels are negatively correlated and juvenile hormone has shifted its role from a gonadotropin to a regulator of maturation and division of labor in the primarily sterile workers. The function of vitellogenin also seems to have broadened to encompass similar roles. Thus, the

SUBMITTER: Amsalem E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4007805 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature