小柯机器人

美国洛克菲勒大学Daniel J. C. Kronauer和Orli Snir共同合作，近期取得重要工作进展。他们研究发现蛹蜕皮液已经在蚂蚁中演化出社会功能。相关研究成果2022年11月30日在线发表于《自然》杂志上。

据介绍，昆虫社会是一个紧密结合的复杂生物系统，在这个系统中，群体水平的特性来自个体之间的相互作用。然而，这些相互作用尚未得到系统研究，因此仍不完全清楚。

通过逆向工程方法，研究人员发现与独居昆虫不同的是，蚁蛹会挤出蜕皮液中富含营养、激素和神经活性物质的分泌物。这种分泌物会引发父母的照顾行为，并被成虫迅速清除和消耗。这种行为对蛹的生存至关重要，如果分泌物不被清除，蛹会发生真菌感染并死亡。类似于哺乳动物的乳汁，分泌物也是早期幼虫营养的重要来源，年轻的幼虫在没有液体的情况下发育迟缓，存活率降低。研究人员发现，蜕皮液这种衍生的社会功能在蚂蚁身上普遍存在。因此，这种分泌形成了蚂蚁社会中一个核心的、迄今被忽视的互动网络的基础，并构成了一个罕见的例子，说明一个保守的发育过程可以被共同用来提供社会互动的机制基础。这些结果表明，蜕皮液在蚂蚁的群居性演化中起着重要作用。

附：英文原文

Title: The pupal moulting fluid has evolved social functions in ants

Author: Snir, Orli, Alwaseem, Hanan, Heissel, Sren, Sharma, Anurag, Valds-Rodrguez, Stephany, Carroll, Thomas S., Jiang, Caroline S., Razzauti, Jacopo, Kronauer, Daniel J. C.

Issue&Volume: 2022-11-30

Abstract: Insect societies are tightly integrated, complex biological systems in which group-level properties arise from the interactions between individuals1,2,3,4. However, these interactions have not been studied systematically and therefore remain incompletely known. Here, using a reverse engineering approach, we reveal that unlike solitary insects, ant pupae extrude a secretion derived from the moulting fluid that is rich in nutrients, hormones and neuroactive substances. This secretion elicits parental care behaviour and is rapidly removed and consumed by the adults. This behaviour is crucial for pupal survival; if the secretion is not removed, pupae develop fungal infections and die. Analogous to mammalian milk, the secretion is also an important source of early larval nutrition, and young larvae exhibit stunted growth and decreased survival without access to the fluid. We show that this derived social function of the moulting fluid generalizes across the ants. This secretion thus forms the basis of a central and hitherto overlooked interaction network in ant societies, and constitutes a rare example of how a conserved developmental process can be co-opted to provide the mechanistic basis of social interactions. These results implicate moulting fluids in having a major role in the evolution of ant eusociality.

DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-05480-9

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-05480-9

Nature：《自然》，创刊于1869年。隶属于施普林格·自然出版集团，最新IF：69.504
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