An Evolutionarily Conserved Pathway Mediated by Neuroparsin-A Regulates Reproductive Plasticity in Ants

Overview

Journal PLoS Biol

Specialty Biology

Date 2024 Aug 12

PMID 39133741

Authors

Xiafang Zhang

Nianxia Xie

Guo Ding

Dongdong Ning

Wei Dai

Zijun Xiong

Wenjiang Zhong

Dashuang Zuo

Jie Zhao

Pei Zhang

Chengyuan Liu

Qiye Li

Hao Ran

Weiwei Liu

Guojie Zhang

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Phenotypic plasticity displayed by an animal in response to different environmental conditions is supposedly crucial for its survival and reproduction. The female adults of some ant lineages display phenotypic plasticity related to reproductive role. In pharaoh ant queens, insemination induces substantial physiological/behavioral changes and implicates remarkable gene regulatory network (GRN) shift in the brain. Here, we report a neuropeptide neuroparsin A (NPA) showing a conserved expression pattern associated with reproductive activity across ant species. Knock-down of NPA in unmated queen enhances ovary activity, whereas injection of NPA peptide in fertilized queen suppresses ovary activity. We found that NPA mainly affected the downstream gene JHBP in the ovary, which is positively regulated by NPA and suppression of which induces elevated ovary activity, and shadow which is negatively regulated by NPA. Furthermore, we show that NPA was also employed into the brain-ovary axis in regulating the worker reproductive changes in other distantly related species, such as Harpegnathos venator ants.

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