Stress and early experience underlie dominance status and division of labour in a clonal insect.

ABSTRACT: Cooperation and division of labour are fundamental in the 'major transitions' in evolution. While the factors regulating cell differentiation in multi-cellular organisms are quite well understood, we are just beginning to unveil the mechanisms underlying individual specialization in cooperative groups of animals. Clonal ants allow the study of which factors influence task allocation without confounding variation in genotype and morphology. Here, we subjected larvae and freshly hatched workers of the clonal ant Platythyrea punctata to different rearing conditions and investigated how these manipulations affected division of labour among pairs of oppositely treated, same-aged clonemates. High rearing temperature, physical stress, injury and malnutrition increased the propensity of ind

SUBMITTER: Bernadou A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6125893 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature