Abstract
SummaryColonies of the red harvester ant (Pogonomyrmex barbatus) differ in how they regulate collective foraging activity in response to changes in humidity. We used transcriptomic, physiological, and pharmacological experiments to investigate the molecular basis of this ecologically important variation in collective behavior among colonies. RNA sequencing of forager brain tissue showed an association between colony foraging activity and differential expression of transcripts related to biogenic amine and neurohormonal metabolism and signaling. In field experiments, pharmacological increases in forager brain dopamine titer caused significant increases in foraging activity. Colonies that were naturally most sensitive to humidity were significantly more responsive to the stimulatory effect of exogenous dopamine. In addition, forager brain tissue significantly varied among colonies in biogenic amine content. Neurophysiological variation among colonies associated with individual forager sensitivity to humidity may reflect the heritable molecular variation on which natural selection acts to shape the collective regulation of foraging.
Highlights
Many biological systems, from brains to insect colonies, are regulated by distributed processes based on local interactions
Ants are a globally distributed clade of social insect species (Gibb et al, 2017; Parr et al, 2017; Ward, 2014), and ecological factors shape the evolution of ant collective behavior (Gordon, 2013, 2014; Lanan, 2014)
Forager Brain Transcriptomic Differences Are Associated with Differences in Colony Behavior Forager brain transcriptomes differed between 2 sets of P. barbatus colonies that differed in how strongly they reduced foraging activity in dry conditions
Summary
From brains to insect colonies, are regulated by distributed processes based on local interactions. Variation among groups in collective behavior (Pruitt et al, 2017) can arise from differences between groups in individual response to local interactions or from differences in group composition (Bengston and Jandt, 2014; Jandt et al, 2014). In social insects, such as ants and honeybees, collective behavior is regulated through olfactory interactions among workers (Dornhaus and Franks, 2008; Feinerman and Korman, 2017; Gordon, 1996, 2010; Gordon and Mehdiabadi, 1999). Much less is known about the molecular variation among social insect colonies associated with heritable variation in collective behavior (Bengston and Jandt, 2014; Jandt et al, 2014; Jandt and Gordon, 2016)
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