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| 〖删除〗〖版主编辑〗〖转移帖子〗〖顶〗〖精〗[回复][短消息][编辑] | | 好文共享：蚂蚁自私的一面 | Worker ants reveal their mercenary side
19:00 26 February 2003
NewScientist.com news service
Shaoni Bhattacharya
Ants have long been regarded as the embodiment of teamwork and selflessness, but a new study reveals a more mercenary side.
Colonies of ants are usually made up of a number of queens and their worker ant offspring, who maintain the apparently harmonious running of the nest. According to evolutionary theory, these worker ants should favour individuals to whom they are more closely related. But this had never been demonstrated - until now.
Work by researchers in Finland shows that worker ants do preferentially favour their own kin when caring for eggs and larvae. This also means the ants must have some way of recognise how related they are to an individual.
"Whether or not nepotism occurs has been a much debated issue," says Liselotte Sundström at the University of Helsinki. "It requires a very precise ability to recognise your own kin."
"This is a very nice demonstration of a phenomenon which people have been looking for for a long time without success. It underscores the importance of kin selection and social selection according to one's relatedness," says Andrew Bourke, an expert on social insects at the Zoological Society of London's Institute of Zoology. Evidence of nepotism has only been seen in one other insect, the honeybee.
Queen's share
Sundström and colleague Minttumaaria Hannonen looked at 10 colonies of the ant Formica fusca. They picked colonies headed by two queens, which is the average number for this species.
They determined whether nepotism in the worker ants was skewing the genetic make-up of the next generation by looking at how each queen's share of eggs and pupae changed over time. They also analysed the genetic relatedness of the queens, workers and eggs.
Sundström told New Scientist: "The queen that was more related to the workers gained in share." And this was also directly proportional to the difference in relatedness between the workers and each of the two queens.
She said the workers might be using chemical cues from individuals to "smell" their relatedness. The odours could come from the waxy layers on the surface cuticle, or from glands.
Workers might influence the next generation by failing to look after the eggs to which they were less related. "Or it may be that they kill them, or feed them to the other pupae to which they are more related," said Sundström. In their next study, the researchers will closely examine the workers' behaviour to discover how they influence the brood. 《Journal reference: Nature (vol 421, p 910)》
| 最初发表时间：2006-2-25 |  | | 未填 |
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