ArticleBMC evolutionary biology2015
The origin and evolution of queen and fertility signals in Corbiculate bees.
Article in BMC evolutionary biology, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers.
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16 citing papers in PubMed, 37 citations in OpenAlex.
- The alkenes Z9-CNature communications · 2025Article
- The Impact of Insecticides on Mycelial Growth ofTropical life sciences research · 2025Article
- Honeybee queen mandibular pheromone fails to regulate ovary activation in the common wasp.Journal of comparative physiology. A, Neuroethology, sensory, neural, and behavioral physiology · 2022Article
- Article
- Hormonal modulation of reproduction and fertility signaling in polistine wasps.Current zoology · 2021Article
- Segmentation of the subcuticular fat body in Apis mellifera females with different reproductive potentials.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Identification of a queen pheromone mediating the rearing of adult sexuals in the pharaoh antBiology letters · 2020Article
- Queen Recognition Signals in Two Primitively Eusocial Halictid Bees: Evolutionary Conservation and Caste-Specific Perception.Insects · 2019Article
- Honeybees possess a structurally diverse and functionally redundant set of queen pheromones.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2019Article
- Reproductive Dominance Strategies in Insect Social Parasites.Journal of chemical ecology · 2018Review
- Solitary bees reduce investment in communication compared with their social relatives.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2017Article
- Hormonal pleiotropy helps maintain queen signal honesty in a highly eusocial wasp.Scientific reports · 2017Article
- Chemical Ecology of Stingless Bees.Journal of chemical ecology · 2017Review
- Diploid Male Production Results in Queen Death in the Stingless Bee Scaptotrigona depilis.Journal of chemical ecology · 2017Article
- Sexual response of male Drosophila to honey bee queen mandibular pheromone: implications for genetic studies of social insects.Journal of comparative physiology. A, Neuroethology, sensory, neural, and behavioral physiology · 2017Article
- Conservation of Queen Pheromones Across Two Species of Vespine Wasps.Journal of chemical ecology · 2016Article
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundIn social Hymenoptera (ants, bees and wasps), various chemical compounds present on the cuticle have been shown to act as fertility signals. In addition, specific queen-characteristic hydrocarbons have been implicated as sterility-inducing queen signals in ants, wasps and bumblebees. In Corbiculate bees, however, the chemical nature of queen-characteristic and fertility-linked compounds appears to be more diverse than in ants and wasps. Moreover, it remains unknown how queen signals evolved across this group and how they might have been co-opted from fertility signals in solitary ancestors.
resultsHere, we perform a phylogenetic analysis of fertility-linked compounds across 16 species of solitary and eusocial bee species, comprising both literature data as well as new primary data from a key solitary outgroup species, the oil-collecting bee Centris analis, and the highly eusocial stingless bee Scaptotrigona depilis. Our results demonstrate the presence of fertility-linked compounds belonging to 12 different chemical classes. In addition, we find that some classes of compounds (linear and branched alkanes, alkenes, esters and fatty acids) were already present as fertility-linked signals in the solitary ancestors of Corbiculate bees, while others appear to be specific to certain species.
conclusionOverall, our results suggest that queen signals in Corbiculate bees are likely derived from ancestral fertility-linked compounds present in solitary bees that lacked reproductive castes. These original fertility-linked cues or signals could have been produced either as a by-product of ovarian activation or could have served other communicative purposes, such as in mate recognition or the regulation of egg-laying.
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