Octopaminergic gene expression and flexible social behaviour in the subsocial burying beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides.

ABSTRACT: Flexible behaviour allows organisms to respond appropriately to changing environmental and social conditions. In the subsocial beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides, females tolerate conspecifics when mating, become aggressive when defending resources, and return to social tolerance when transitioning to parenting. Given the association between octopamine and aggression in insects, we hypothesized that genes in the octopaminergic system would be differentially expressed across different social and reproductive contexts. To test this in N. vespilloides, we first obtained the sequences of orthologues of the synthetic enzymes and receptors of the octopaminergic system. We next compared relative gene expression from virgin females, mated females, mated females alone on a resource required for reprod

SUBMITTER: Cunningham CB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4237177 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature