ArticleDevelopment, growth & differentiation2023
Plastic brain structure changes associated with the division of labor and aging in termites.
Article in Development, growth & differentiation, 2023. 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, 14 citations in OpenAlex.
- Accumulation of 13C-labeled phosphatidylethanolamine in the termite abdomen revealed by correlative isotope microscopy and mass microscopy.Microscopy (Oxford, England) · 2026Article
- Sex-specific division of labor in termites is linked to differential brain architecture and foraging gene expression.iScience · 2026Article
- Sex-Specific Neuroplasticity in the Brain of a Facultatively Social Orchid Bee.Integrative and comparative biology · 2026Article
- Sexual dimorphism and morphological integration in the orchid bee brain.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Oral Transfer of Anti-Aging Substances: Key Chemical Found in Reproductive Caste of Termites.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Article
- Article
- Differentiation of workers into soldiers is associated with a size reduction of higher-order brain centers in the neotropical termite Procornitermes araujoi.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Plastic brain structure changes associated with the division of labor and aging in termites.Development, growth & differentiation · 2023Article
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Authors and funding
10 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Division of labor is a prominent feature of social insect societies, where different castes engage in different specialized tasks. As brain differences are associated with behavioral differences, brain anatomy may be linked to caste polymorphism. Here, we show that termite brain morphology changes markedly with caste differentiation and age in the termite, Reticulitermes speratus. Brain morphology was shown to be associated with reproductive division of labor, with reproductive individuals (alates and neotenic reproductives) having larger brains than nonreproductives (workers and soldiers). Micro-computed tomography (CT) imaging and dissection observations showed that the king's brain morphology changed markedly with shrinkage of the optic lobes during their long life in the dark. Behavioral experiments showed that mature primary kings lose visual function as a result of optic lobe shrinkage. These results suggested that termites restructure their nervous systems to perform necessary tasks as they undergo caste differentiation, and that they also show flexible changes in brain morphology even after the final molt. This study showed that brain morphology in social insects is linked to caste and aging, and that the evolution of the division of labor is underpinned by the development of diverse neural systems for specialized tasks.
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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.