title: Dual effect of wasp queen pheromone in regulating insect sociality.
abstract: Eusocial insects exhibit a remarkable reproductive division of labor between queens and largely sterile workers [1, 2]. Recently, it was shown that queens of diverse groups of social insects employ specific, evolutionarily conserved cuticular hydrocarbons to signal their presence and inhibit worker reproduction [3]. Workers also recognize and discriminate between eggs laid by the queen and those laid by workers, with the latter being destroyed by workers in a process known as "policing" [4, 5]. Worker policing represents a classic example of a conflict-reducing mechanism, in which the reproductive monopoly of the queen is maintained through the selective destruction of worker-laid eggs [5, 6]. However, the exact signals used in worker policing have thus far remained elusive [5, 7]. Here, we show that in the common wasp, Vespula vulgaris, the pheromone that signals egg maternity and enables the workers to selectively destroy worker-laid eggs is in fact the same as one of the sterility-inducing queen signals that we identified earlier [3]. These results imply that queen pheromones regulate insect sociality in two distinct and complementary ways, i.e., by signaling the queen's presence and inhibiting worker reproduction, and by facilitating the recognition and policing of worker-laid eggs.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Socioecology and Social Evolution, KU Leuven, Naamsestraat 59, 3000 Leuven, Belgium. Electronic address: cintiaakemi.oi@bio.kuleuven.be.
authors.forename: Cintia A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Oi
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Socioecology and Social Evolution, KU Leuven, Naamsestraat 59, 3000 Leuven, Belgium.
authors.forename: Annette
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Van Oystaeyen
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Socioecology and Social Evolution, KU Leuven, Naamsestraat 59, 3000 Leuven, Belgium.
authors.forename: Ricardo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Caliari Oliveira
authors.affiliation: Department of Entomology and Department of Chemistry, University of California, Riverside, Riverside, CA 92521, USA.
authors.forename: Jocelyn G
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Millar
authors.affiliation: VIB Laboratory for Systems Biology, KU Leuven, Gaston Geenslaan 1, 3001 Leuven, Belgium; CMPG Laboratory for Genetics and Genomics, KU Leuven, Gaston Geenslaan 1, 3001 Leuven, Belgium.
authors.forename: Kevin J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Verstrepen
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Socioecology and Social Evolution, KU Leuven, Naamsestraat 59, 3000 Leuven, Belgium.
authors.forename: Jelle S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: van Zweden
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Socioecology and Social Evolution, KU Leuven, Naamsestraat 59, 3000 Leuven, Belgium. Electronic address: tom.wenseleers@bio.kuleuven.be.
authors.forename: Tom
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Wenseleers
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D004531:Eggs; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D010675:Pheromones / Q000502:physiology*; D012919:Social Behavior; D014863:Wasps / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D010675:Pheromones
keywords: Vespula vulgaris; egg-marking pheromones; queen pheromones; social insects; worker policing