2010 Fiscal Year Final Research Report
Ecological, physiological and molecular biological mechanisms integrating insect social behavior
| Project/Area Number |
20570016
|
|---|
| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
|
| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
|---|
| Section | 一般 |
|---|
| Research Field |
Ecology/Environment
|
|---|
| Research Institution | The University of Tokyo |
|---|
Principal Investigator |
SHIBAO Harunobu 東京大学, 大学院・総合文化研究科, 助教 (90401207)
|
|---|
| Project Period (FY) |
2008 – 2010
|
| Keywords | 社会性アブラムシ / ハクウンボクハナフシアブラムシ / 兵隊階級 / 齢分業 / 化学コミュニケーション |
|---|
| Research Abstract |
A major goal in biology is to understand the integrative mechanism of animal social behavior. In social aphids, altruistic individuals called "soldiers" perform colony defense and housekeeping. When the soldiers are young, they perform relatively safe tasks inside the colony such as gall cleaning. As the soldiers age, their tasks involve more dangerous outside activities such as colony defense. We investigated the ecological, physiological and molecular biological mechanisms of this age-dependent division of labor among the soldiers of a gall-forming aphid, Tuberaphis styraci, which is a model species representing social aphids.
|
