Abstract
The evolution of sociality in insects is an example of a so-called "major transition in evolution", whereby previously solitary breeding insects went on to live in social groups characterized by the presence of an advanced reproductive division of labour. . This basic model, known as the "Ovarian Ground Plan Hypothesis" (OGPH), was later modified into the "Reproductive Ground Plan Hypothesis" (RGPH) and several other derived theories, which all argue that the genetic and hormonal networks controlling the reproductive cycle of pre-social ancestors not only lie at the basis of the queen and worker phenotypes but also underlie the division of labour among non-reproductive social insect workers (e.g. foraging vs. nursing). In our own work on the evolution of sociality in insects, we recently made the breakthrough discovery that conserved queen signals help to regulate the reproductive division of labour across different lineages of social insects. In addition, we found that queen fertility and queen signal production in the highly eusocial common wasp appeared to be under shared juvenile hormone (JH) control. The general aim of this research project will be to determine how hormonal and reproductive cycles in pre-social ancestors were co-opted and modified during the evolution of primitive and advanced eusociality in wasps. More specifically, we will compare European and Brazilian primitively and advanced eusocial species of wasps with their direct pre-social ancestors to test whether and how endocrine JH cycles in pre-social ancestors have been used as building blocks to regulate reproduction, reproductive signalling and division of labour during the progressive evolution of sociality. (AU)
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