Abstract
The sophisticated colony organization of eusocial insects is primarily maintained through the utilization of pheromones. The regulation of these complex social interactions requires intricate chemoreception systems. The recent publication of the genome of Zootermopsis nevadensis opened a new avenue to study molecular basis of termite caste systems. Although there has been a growing interest in the termite chemoreception system that regulates their sophisticated caste system, the relationship between division of labor and expression of chemoreceptor genes remains to be explored. Using high-throughput mRNA sequencing (RNA-seq), we found several chemoreceptors that are differentially expressed among castes and between sexes in a subterranean termite Reticulitermes speratus. In total, 53 chemoreception-related genes were annotated, including 22 odorant receptors, 7 gustatory receptors, 12 ionotropic receptors, 9 odorant-binding proteins, and 3 chemosensory proteins. Most of the chemoreception-related genes had caste-related and sex-related expression patterns; in particular, some chemoreception genes showed king-biased or queen-biased expression patterns. Moreover, more than half of the genes showed significant age-dependent differences in their expression in female and/or male reproductives. These results reveal a strong relationship between the evolution of the division of labor and the regulation of chemoreceptor gene expression, thereby demonstrating the chemical communication and underlining chemoreception mechanism in social insects.
Highlights
Animals perceive chemical signals in their environment using chemical senses, mainly to locate potential food sources, detect predators, and to receive chemical cues in social interactions [1]
Illumina sequencing of all castes and sexes in R. speratus yielded a total of 729 M read pairs with an average length of 93 bp for each short read, and the percentage of GC content was 41%
T. castaneum (64%), Dendroctonus ponderosae (64%), D. melanogaster (72%), Anopheles gambiae (73%), Aedes aegypti (72%), and Locusta migratoria (63%)
Summary
Animals perceive chemical signals in their environment using chemical senses (olfaction and gustation), mainly to locate potential food sources, detect predators, and to receive chemical cues in social interactions [1]. A chemical signal used to communicate among members of the same species is called a pheromone [2]. The sophisticated colony organization of eusocial insects is primarily maintained through the utilization of pheromones, which are likely involved in all social activities including foraging, sexual behavior, defense, nestmate.
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