How does the ants colony decide who is fit to become a queen? In most cases, the greater the female ant, the greater the chance of a colony queen. In fact, ants are governed by the full structure of their colonies, which are accurately organized in several layers that meet specialized roles.
new Ticket Posted in The facts of the National Academy of Sciences It was found that genetics, above all, is what often decides whether the female ants would raise the queen’s position or as a factor. While both environmental conditions and genes play a role in the size of the ants, genetic variation helps some female ants distinguish the rest, which gives it with the thickness of the queen that appears early.
Anatomy of the ants of the ant
Ant colonies generally consist of three types of ants: males (drones), non -produced females, and the queen.
Unjustly crazy females are always smaller than the Queen. They are the ones who do all the hard work about colony; The workers spend their crowded days to sweep food, care for the queen and larvae, and maintain the cleanliness of the colony. Females with a strong bottom jaw act as personal guards, and protect the colony from infiltrators.
Winning males, at the same time, have one basic duty: mating with the queen. And since the colonies are constantly increasing, the males and virgin queens will leave their colonies and began The journey of marriage. During this annual event, Virgin Queens attracts many males in favor of Mailit with the atmosphere, then landing and laying eggs, thus starting a new colony. Males cannot stay for a long time – they die quickly after cloning with a queen.
Read more: Crazy ants lead the way to a swarm, and help colonies plan to make complex tasks
The era of ants
The researchers participating in the new study are scheduled to understand the reason for some female ants to become queens while others cannot, which may also provide an insight into the organization of ants. Classes.
“One of our goals is to understand how the insect community works,” said author Daniel Krunaur, a professor of development at the University of Rockefeller. statement. “The study of how to distinguish individuals in a colony can be our understanding of the types of layer systems, from queens to workers to soldiers, which can develop in thousands of ant
Environmental factors, such as food and temperature, are decisive elements that determine the size of the ants. But what really matters is genetics. Previous research has shown that when genetically identified ants are raised with less food, they will become smaller and miss the development of queen -like features. However, if the larvae can reach a specific size although there is no food, they will develop the queen -like features.
Genes are suitable for the queen
To determine the importance of genes in the size of the body and the regulation of the layer, the researchers examined the wonderful ants. Although these ants do not have traditional queens, they contain individuals known as the Benio, which develops similar features of the queens. The reason for using these ants is that their genetic patterns can be easily controlled.
The researchers tested various genetically larvae of these ants under similar environmental conditions. They found that their genes not only affect their size, but also impose when the ants will develop the queen -like features.
The ants grew from one genetic line, which the researchers described “M”, constantly to smaller sizes in the body from those in another line, bearing the name “A”, even when raised in the same conditions. However, for any specific body size, the ants would likely develop the line M.
What this means is that some genetic patterns AN begin to express the queen -like features of smaller sizes.
“If some environmental factors affect the layer, this will also affect the size,” said author Patrick Pickery, who is now a post -doctoral researcher at the Kronauer Laboratory. “The change in one of them cannot be stimulated and not the other. As much as we can say, regardless of the environmental variable you are manipulating, the relationship between the size of the ants and the sect remains unchanged, and instead it is genetically coded.”
Researchers believe that the results they have reached have important effects to understand ant colonies as superior organisms, which contain genetically identical individuals who perform various roles, just like cells in tissues.
Read more: Ants make a tube and use even toilets to enrich their own gardens
condition sources
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Jack Knudson is an auxiliary editor in Discover with strong interest in science and environmental history. Before joining Discover in 2023, he studied journalism at Scripps Communications College at Ohio University and previously trained in Recycling Toy