Figure 1. JH3 and 20E drive caste-specific gene expression and behavior.
(A) RNA-seq from central brains of mature (4 months old) foraging workers and reproductive gamergates. Genes discussed in the text are highlighted. Data from 9 worker and 5 gamergate brains. Hyp, hymenoptaecin.
(B) Experiment scheme. Immature workers were 10 days old.
(C) Brain RNA-seq after injections of JH3 or 20E. Genes referenced in text are in green (JH3) or blue (20E). Data from 7 biological replicates.
(D) PCA based on the 1,000 most variable genes showing mature worker and gamergate brains (full circles) and immature worker brains after JH3 or 20E injections (semi-transparent circles).
(E) Overlap of genes affected by JH3 or 20E injections with those differentially expressed in workers and gamergates (black line). The P-value was obtained by comparison with 106 random permutations of the gene lists (“shuffle”, orange line).
(F and G) Log-fold-changes in genes that responded to JH3 (F) or 20E (G) injections over DMSO (y axis) and worker vs. gamergate brains (x axis).
(H) Number of cricket interactions for ants injected with DMSO or hormone analogs in the cricket-in-a-tube assay (Gospocic et al., 2017). Bars represent means + SEM. n = 71, 74, and 74 ants for DMSO, meth (JH3 analog), and ponA (20E analog), respectively. P-values are from a generalized linear model based on the negative binomial distribution.
(I) Activation score of ovaries in injected individuals based on the presence of different stages of oocytes and nurse cells. Bars represent the mean + SEM. P-values are from ANOVA and Holm-Sidak test.