Evidence map›Paper›PMID 33149171›Full record

ArticleScientific reports2020

Reproduction and signals regulating worker policing under identical hormonal control in social wasps.

Cintia Akemi Oi, Robert L Brown, Rafael Carvalho da Silva, Tom Wenseleers

Open access · goldAbstract readComparative Study
In one paragraph

Article in Scientific reports, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
9citing papers in PubMed
4.9field-weighted citation impact, top 6% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

9 citing papers in PubMed, 18 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Review
  2. The multifaceted role of brood communication in wasp societies.Current research in insect science · 2025
    Review
  3. The Molecular Substrates of Insect Eusociality.Annual review of genetics · 2024
    Review
  4. Article
  5. Review
  6. Honeybee queen mandibular pheromone fails to regulate ovary activation in the common wasp.Journal of comparative physiology. A, Neuroethology, sensory, neural, and behavioral physiology · 2022
    Article
  7. Article
  8. Article
  9. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors at 3 institutions in 3 countries.

Cintia Akemi OiLaboratory of Socioecology and Social Evolution, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium. cintiaakemioi@gmail.com.
Robert L BrownManaaki Whenua - Landcare Research, Lincoln, New Zealand.
Rafael Carvalho da SilvaFaculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Ribeirão Preto, Departamento de Biologia, Universidade de São Paulo - USP, Ribeirão Preto, SP, Brazil.
Tom WenseleersLaboratory of Socioecology and Social Evolution, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
KU Leuven · BEManaaki Whenua – Landcare Research · NZUniversidade de Ribeirão Preto · BR

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

In social Hymenoptera, fertility and fertility signalling are often under identical hormonal control, and it has been suggested that such hormonal pleiotropies can help to maintain signal honesty. In the common wasp Vespula vulgaris, for example, fertile queens have much higher juvenile hormone (JH) titers than workers, and JH also controls the production of chemical fertility cues present on the females' cuticle. To regulate reproductive division of labour, queens use these fertility cues in two distinct ways: as queen pheromones that directly suppress the workers' reproduction as well as to mark queen eggs and enable the workers to recognize and police eggs laid by other workers. Here, we investigated the hormonal pleiotropy hypothesis by testing if experimental treatment with the JH analogue methoprene could enable the workers to lay eggs that evade policing. In support of this hypothesis, we find that methoprene-treated workers laid more eggs, and that the chemical profiles of their eggs were more queen-like, thereby causing fewer of their eggs to be policed compared to in the control. Overall, our results identify JH as a key regulator of both reproduction and the production of egg marking pheromones that mediate policing behaviour in eusocial wasps.

Indexed as

AnimalsBehavior, AnimalFemaleHierarchy, SocialMethoprenePheromonesReproductionWaspsMethoprenePheromones

Identifiers

PMID33149171
PMCPMC7643062
OpenAlexW3096214210

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.