Regulatory mechanisms of social behavior in ants

Akiko Koto (National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) )

The social interaction with others has beneficial impact in various animals. Animals develop the flexible strategies to respond their social environment to maximize their fitness and health. By using social insects, in particular ants, we aim to investigate the regulatory mechanisms of social behavior, and to understand how the social environment affects their behavior, physiology and fitness. Ants exhibit sophisticated social organization with reproductive castes. Ant colony is composed from queens, males, and non-reproductive caste, workers. Workers show the division of labor, that is, each worker specializes in one job such as foraging, nurturing or nest construction. They switch their task depending on their age, or social environment. In this seminar, I would like to introduce our recent study about the functions of neuropeptide, inotocin, which is related with the environmental adaptation in workers, and discuss how the social interaction affect the workers’ fitness and behavior using the tag-based behavior tracking system.

Reference

Oxytocin/vasopressin-like peptide inotocin regulates cuticular hydrocarbon synthesis and water balancing in ants. PNAS 116, 5597-5606, 2019. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1817788116

25th October 2019, 16:30-

Building 12 Room 102, Minami Osawa Campus, Tokyo Metroplitan University