Effects of juvenile hormone in fertility and fertility-signaling in workers of the common wasp Vespula vulgaris

In the highly eusocial wasp, Vespula vulgaris, queens produce honest signals to alert their subordinate workers of their fertility status, and therefore they are reproductively suppressed and help in the colony. The honesty of the queen signals is likely maintained due to hormonal regulation, which...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	PloS one Vol. 16; no. 5; p. e0250720
Main Authors:	Oi, Cintia Akemi, Ferreira, Helena Mendes, da Silva, Rafael Carvalho, Bienstman, Andreas, Nascimento, Fabio Santos do, Wenseleers, Tom
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	United States Public Library of Science 17-05-2021 Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Subjects:	Acetone Aggressive behavior Aggressiveness Analysis Animal behavior Animals Biology and Life Sciences Bumblebees Editing Evolution Exocrine glands Female Fertility Fertility - drug effects Fruit flies Funding Hormones Hydrocarbons Hypotheses Insecticides Insects Juvenile hormones Juvenile Hormones - metabolism Laboratories Life span Medicine and Health Sciences Methodology Methoprene Methoprene - pharmacology Oocytes - drug effects Oocytes - metabolism Ovaries Ovary - drug effects Ovary - metabolism Pheromones Physical Sciences Pituitary (anterior) Pleiotropy Queens Reproduction - drug effects Signal Transduction - drug effects Social behavior Social Sciences Species Vespula vulgaris Wasps Wasps - physiology Workers (insect caste) Brazil Belgium
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Summary:	In the highly eusocial wasp, Vespula vulgaris, queens produce honest signals to alert their subordinate workers of their fertility status, and therefore they are reproductively suppressed and help in the colony. The honesty of the queen signals is likely maintained due to hormonal regulation, which affects fertility and fertility cue expression. Here, we tested if hormonal pleiotropy could support the hypothesis that juvenile hormone controls fertility and fertility signaling in workers. In addition, we aimed to check oocyte size as a proxy of fertility. To do that, we treated V. vulgaris workers with synthetic versions of juvenile hormone (JH) analogue and a JH inhibitor, methoprene and precocene, respectively. We dissected the treated females to check ovary activation and analyzed their chemical profile. Our results showed that juvenile hormone has an influence on the abundance of fertility linked compounds produced by workers, and it also showed to increase oocyte size in workers. Our results corroborate the hypothesis that juvenile hormone controls fertility and fertility signaling in workers, whereby workers are unable to reproduce without alerting other colony members of their fertility. This provides supports the hypothesis that hormonal pleiotropy contributes to keeping the queen fertility signals honest.
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
ISSN:	1932-6203 1932-6203
DOI:	10.1371/journal.pone.0250720