Effects of juvenile hormone in fertility and fertility-signaling in workers of the common wasp Vespula vulgaris

PLoS One. 2021 May 17;16(5):e0250720. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0250720. eCollection 2021.

Abstract

In the highly eusocial wasp, Vespula vulgaris, queens produce honest signals to alert their subordinate workers of their fertility status, and therefore they are reproductively suppressed and help in the colony. The honesty of the queen signals is likely maintained due to hormonal regulation, which affects fertility and fertility cue expression. Here, we tested if hormonal pleiotropy could support the hypothesis that juvenile hormone controls fertility and fertility signaling in workers. In addition, we aimed to check oocyte size as a proxy of fertility. To do that, we treated V. vulgaris workers with synthetic versions of juvenile hormone (JH) analogue and a JH inhibitor, methoprene and precocene, respectively. We dissected the treated females to check ovary activation and analyzed their chemical profile. Our results showed that juvenile hormone has an influence on the abundance of fertility linked compounds produced by workers, and it also showed to increase oocyte size in workers. Our results corroborate the hypothesis that juvenile hormone controls fertility and fertility signaling in workers, whereby workers are unable to reproduce without alerting other colony members of their fertility. This provides supports the hypothesis that hormonal pleiotropy contributes to keeping the queen fertility signals honest.

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Female
  • Fertility* / drug effects
  • Juvenile Hormones* / metabolism
  • Methoprene / pharmacology
  • Oocytes / drug effects
  • Oocytes / metabolism
  • Ovary / drug effects
  • Ovary / metabolism
  • Reproduction / drug effects
  • Signal Transduction / drug effects
  • Wasps* / physiology

Substances

  • Juvenile Hormones
  • Methoprene

Grants and funding

This research was funded by Research Foundation Flanders to CAO (postdoctoral fellowship FWO-12V6318N and research grant 1513219N). RCS was funded by São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) under the grant 2018/22461–3 and Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior, Brasil (CAPES), Finance Code 001. CAO, HMF and TW were funded by the research grant (G064120N). All authors were funded by Bilateral grant FWO-FAPESP (FWO GOF8319N and FAPESP 2018/106996-0).