ArticlePloS one2015
Expression of the Foraging Gene Is Associated with Age Polyethism, Not Task Preference, in the Ant Cardiocondyla obscurior.
Article in PloS one, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.
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Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed.
- The pace and shape of ant ageing.Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society · 2025Review
- Article
- Vitellogenin-like A-associated shifts in social cue responsiveness regulate behavioral task specialization in an ant.PLoS biology · 2018Article
- Expression Characterization and Localization of the foraging Gene in the Chinese Bee, Apis cerana cerana (Hymenoptera: Apidae).Journal of insect science (Online) · 2018Article
- Group demography affects ant colony performance and individual speed of queen and worker aging.BMC evolutionary biology · 2017Article
- The DrosophilaCognitive development · 2017Article
- Sequential social experiences interact to modulate aggression but not brain gene expression in the honey bee (Frontiers in zoology · 2017Article
- Context-dependent expression of the foraging gene in field colonies of ants: the interacting roles of age, environment and task.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2016Article
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3 authors.
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Abstract
One of the fundamental principles of social organization, age polyethism, describes behavioral maturation of workers leading to switches in task preference. Here we present a system that allows for studying division of labor (DOL) by taking advantage of the relative short life of Cardiocondyla obscurior workers and thereby the pace of behavioral transitions. By challenging same-age young and older age cohorts to de novo establish DOL into nurse and foraging tasks and by forcing nurses to precociously become foragers and vice versa we studied expression patterns of one of the best known candidates for social insect worker behavior, the foraging gene. Contrary to our expectations we found that foraging gene expression correlates with age, but not with the task foraging per se. This suggests that this nutrition-related gene, and the pathways it is embedded in, correlates with physiological changes over time and potentially primes, but not determines task preference of individual workers.
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