ArticleCell2023
Hormonal gatekeeping via the blood-brain barrier governs caste-specific behavior in ants.
Article in Cell, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 23 papers.
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Who cites it
23 citing papers in PubMed, 41 citations in OpenAlex.
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- Neuropeptides specify and reprogram division of labor in the leafcutter ant Atta cephalotes.Cell · 2025Article
- Glial cells diverge in fly brain evolution.PLoS biology · 2025Article
- Insect circadian plasticity as a proposed target for the expression of parasite extended phenotypes.Npj biological timing and sleep · 2025Review
- The brain atlas of a subsocial bee reflects that of eusocial Hymenoptera.Genes, brain, and behavior · 2024Article
- From Egg to Adult: A Developmental Table of the Ant Monomorium pharaonis.Journal of experimental zoology. Part B, Molecular and developmental evolution · 2024Article
- Juvenile hormone as a key regulator for asymmetric caste differentiation in ants.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024Article
- Neuropeptides specify and reprogram division of labor in the leafcutter antbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2024Article
- The Molecular Substrates of Insect Eusociality.Annual review of genetics · 2024Review
- Glial expression of a steroidogenic enzyme underlies natural variation in hitchhiking behavior.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024Article
- Effects of microRNA-305 knockdown on brain gene expression associated with division of labor in honey bee colonies (Apis mellifera).The Journal of experimental biology · 2024Article
- The domestic chick as an animal model of autism spectrum disorder: building adaptive social perceptions through prenatally formed predispositions.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2024Review
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9 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Here, we reveal an unanticipated role of the blood-brain barrier (BBB) in regulating complex social behavior in ants. Using scRNA-seq, we find localization in the BBB of a key hormone-degrading enzyme called juvenile hormone esterase (Jhe), and we show that this localization governs the level of juvenile hormone (JH3) entering the brain. Manipulation of the Jhe level reprograms the brain transcriptome between ant castes. Although ant Jhe is retained and functions intracellularly within the BBB, we show that Drosophila Jhe is naturally extracellular. Heterologous expression of ant Jhe into the Drosophila BBB alters behavior in fly to mimic what is seen in ants. Most strikingly, manipulation of Jhe levels in ants reprograms complex behavior between worker castes. Our study thus uncovers a remarkable, potentially conserved role of the BBB serving as a molecular gatekeeper for a neurohormonal pathway that regulates social behavior.
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