An evolutionarily conserved pathway mediated by neuroparsin-A regulates reproductive plasticity in ants
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.
Authors
- Guo Ding (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6145-6138)
- Hao Ran (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5462-3615)
- Jie Zhao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5403-9865)
- Chengyuan Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8690-8698)
- Zijun Xiong (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3923-0703)
- Qiye Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5993-0312)
- Nianxia Xie (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3417-479X)
- Wei Dai (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9286-759X)
- Guojie Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6860-1521)
- Xiafang Zhang
- Dashuang Zuo
- Wenjiang Zhong
- Weiwei Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5082-9114)
- Pei Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0608-5677)
- Dongdong Ning (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8015-0831)
Institutions
- BGI Group (China) (CN)
- Zhejiang Chinese Medical University (CN)
- Kunming Institute of Zoology (CN)
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
- Women's Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University (CN)
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
- BGI Research (CN)
- Zhejiang University (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- PLoS Biology
- Published
- 2024-08-12
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002763
- Citations
- 8
- Primary Topic
- Neurobiology and Insect Physiology Research
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 2.15
Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China