Overview
The traditional focus of physiological and functional genomic research is on molecular processes that play out within a single multicellular organism. In the colonial (eusocial) insects such as ants, bees, and termites, molecular and behavioral responses of interacting nestmates are tightly linked, and key physiological processes are regulated at the scale of the colony. Such colony-level physiological processes regulate nestmate physiology in a distributed fashion, through various social communication mechanisms. As a result of physiological decentralization over evolutionary time, organismal mechanisms, for example related to pheromone detection, hormone signaling, and neural signaling pathways, are deployed in novel contexts to influence nestmate and colony traits. Here we explore how functional genomic, physiological, and behavioral studies can benefit from considering the traits of eusocial insects in this light. We highlight functional genomic work exploring how nestmate-level and colony-level traits arise and are influenced by interactions among physiologically-specialized nestmates of various developmental stages. We also consider similarities and differences between nestmate-level (organismal) and colony-level (superorganismal) physiological processes, and make specific hypotheses regarding the physiology of eusocial taxa. Integrating theoretical models of distributed systems with empirical functional genomics approaches will be useful in addressing fundamental questions related to the evolution of eusociality and collective behavior in natural systems.
Overview source: Curated paper metadata.
Methods and contributions
Read the source for the full argument, qualifications, and evidence.
Findings and contributions
- The authors argue the Reproductive Groundplan / toolkit idea is true to a degree but insufficient as a complete explanation for evolution of superorganismal complexity.
- They hypothesize that eusocial species have a larger cumulative number of exocrine glands across nestmate classes than solitary insects, with more complex secretions.
- They hypothesize that direct hormone transfer via trophallaxis, as found in carpenter ants, will prove commonplace in eusocial clades.
- They hypothesize that novel gene regulatory networks will form from the decoupling of otherwise conserved pathways and traits in the colony context.
- They caution that Drosophila-derived GO analysis in eusocial insects will ignore taxonomically restricted genes and overstate orthologous genes.
Methods
- Social anatomy / social physiology analogy to metazoan bodies — Frames the colony via the social anatomy vs social physiology distinction, comparing specialized nestmates to organs and signaling to physiology.
- Two-kind trait classification: nestmate-measurable vs collective colony traits — Distinguishes traits measurable in one nestmate (e.g. head width) from collective outcomes (e.g. nest architecture) to organize case studies.
- Review of functional genomic case studies of colony-level regulation — Surveys case studies where physiological and functional genomic work clarified colony-level regulation of worker and queen traits.
- Formulation of testable hypotheses (glands, signaling, regulatory networks) — Proposes hypotheses for glands, signaling pathways, and gene regulatory networks, to be tested with phylogenetic comparative methods.
Summary sources: Paper metadata and evidence · Extracted source text.
Document downloads
PDFs are hosted here; supporting sources may use pinned archives.
- 2020_DistributedPhysiology.pdf PDF · 0.68 MiB · extracted-text source
Citation
Citation metadata follows the unified bibliography.
Catalog details and resources
Related works
Ranked by recorded methods, topics, contributors and associated software, with contributor roles and domain-only matches labelled. Metadata overlap is not a citation or a scientific equivalence.