Student Name: Bryon Hancock

The critical role of insulin signal in the evolution of of eusociality of ants

Eusocial is a social organization that produces offsprings from a single female or caste,

and includes groups of non reproductive organism that care for the young, in this case larva.

Eusocial is the hierarchy that organizes populations of ants. Insulin signal is what regulates the

function of ants specifically insulin-like peptide 2 (ilp2), a gene that determines the reproductive

system. The study was done to understand the evolutionary pathway from subsocial to eventually

to what is more commonly seen, eusocial.

This study started out with finding the gene expression of seven different ant species. The

test showed the difference between queens and workers was the gene ilp2. Knowing what gene

to manipulated, the scientists that perform the experiment that is mentioned in the research

article, “Social regulation of insulin signaling and the evolution of eusociality in ants,” tested the

reaction of ants when larva was removed from a population of O. biroi. O. biroi is a queenless

species. This demonstrated that O. biroi ants increased in levels of ilp2, stimulating reproduction.

Species with queens, the queens reacted similarly. Later in their experiment, they tested ants by

injecting synthetic ilp2. Even though larva was present they wanted to see if the ants will

produces anyways. The experiment was positive, the increase of ilp2 dose produced eggs.

According to this study, reproductive ants are different from non reproductive ants

because of the ilp2 levels. Larva quantity reacts a stimulant, insulin, to signal the reproductive

system to create more eggs. Although this experiment opened our understand of the eusocial of

ants, it did not answer the evolution from subsocial to eusocial organization.

The experiment was limited in that there wasn’t a process found to determine the
evolutionary pathway of the ant’s organizational system.