title: Candidate genes for individual recognition in Polistes fuscatus paper wasps.
abstract: Few animals are known to individually recognize conspecifics, i.e. learn and recall unique individuals during subsequent encounters, and nearly all are social vertebrates. Remarkably, the social paper wasp Polistes fuscatus has recently been discovered to possess this ability, which is useful for remembering identities during competitive social interactions. We analyzed brain gene expression in staged encounters between pairs of individuals to explore potential mechanisms underlying wasps' ability to recall familiar individuals using real-time qRT-PCR. We identified four candidate genes (IP3K, IP3R, Nckx30C and Su(var)2-10) that were down-regulated in the presence of familiar individuals compared to single wasps and pairs of wasps meeting for the first time. These candidate genes are related to calcium signaling, therefore, we treated wasps with lithium chloride, a pharmacological agent that inhibits calcium signaling in neurons. This treatment decreased aggression in paper wasps, but did not affect expression of genes related to calcium signaling. The results suggest calcium signaling differences may be related to individual memory recall in wasps, and we present four promising candidate genes for future study. These data suggest genes associated with dominance behavior may be co-opted for individual recognition, but further work is needed to establish a causal association with the behavior.
authors.affiliation: Program in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, 50011, USA. berens.ali@gmail.com.|Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, 50011, USA. berens.ali@gmail.com.
authors.forename: A J
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1579-4777
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Berens
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109, USA.
authors.forename: E A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Tibbetts
authors.affiliation: Program in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, 50011, USA.|Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, 50011, USA.|Department of Entomology, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, 50011, USA.
authors.forename: A L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Toth
mesh_terms: D000374:Aggression / Q000502:physiology; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000818:Animals; D001921:Brain / Q000378:metabolism; D020013:Calcium Signaling / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics; D004291:Dominance-Subordination; D005260:Female; D015870:Gene Expression / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics; D006185:Habituation, Psychophysiologic / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics; D053496:Inositol 1,4,5-Trisphosphate Receptors / Q000235:genetics; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D018021:Lithium Chloride / Q000494:pharmacology; D015636:Magnesium Chloride / Q000494:pharmacology; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D017853:Phosphotransferases (Alcohol Group Acceptor) / Q000235:genetics; D050828:Protein Inhibitors of Activated STAT / Q000235:genetics; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000378:metabolism; D021641:Recognition, Psychology / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D019831:Sodium-Calcium Exchanger / Q000235:genetics; D014863:Wasps / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D053496:Inositol 1,4,5-Trisphosphate Receptors; D050828:Protein Inhibitors of Activated STAT; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D019831:Sodium-Calcium Exchanger; D015636:Magnesium Chloride; C074530:potassium-dependent sodium-calcium exchanger; D017853:Phosphotransferases (Alcohol Group Acceptor); C051038:Inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate 3-kinase; D018021:Lithium Chloride
keywords: Calcium signaling; Individual recognition; Memory recall; Paper wasps; Polistes