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The origin and evolution of social insect queen pheromones: Novel hypotheses and outstanding problems
Author(s) -
Oi Cintia A.,
van Zweden Jelle S.,
Oliveira Ricardo C.,
Van Oystaeyen Annette,
Nascimento Fabio S.,
Wenseleers Tom
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
bioessays
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.175
H-Index - 184
eISSN - 1521-1878
pISSN - 0265-9247
DOI - 10.1002/bies.201400180
Subject(s) - sex pheromone , queen (butterfly) , pheromone , insect , biology , evolutionary biology , mating , zoology , division of labour , ecology , hymenoptera , political science , law
Queen pheromones, which signal the presence of a fertile queen and induce daughter workers to remain sterile, are considered to play a key role in regulating the reproductive division of labor of insect societies. Although queen pheromones were long thought to be highly taxon‐specific, recent studies have shown that structurally related long‐chain hydrocarbons act as conserved queen signals across several independently evolved lineages of social insects. These results imply that social insect queen pheromones are very ancient and likely derived from an ancestral signalling system that was already present in their common solitary ancestors. Based on these new insights, we here review the literature and speculate on what signal precursors social insect queen pheromones may have evolved from. Furthermore, we provide compelling evidence that these pheromones should best be seen as honest signals of fertility as opposed to suppressive agents that chemically sterilize the workers against their own best interests.