Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
Volume 277, Issue 1684, Pages 995-1002Publisher
ROYAL SOC
DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2009.1857
Keywords
Isoptera; neotenic secondary reproductives; primer pheromones; fertility signal; caste regulation; MALDI-TOF
Categories
Funding
- Grant Agency of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic [A600550614]
- Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Prague [Z4 055 0506]
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In 1959, P. Karlson and M. Luscher introduced the term 'pheromone', broadly used nowadays for various chemicals involved in intraspecific communication. To demonstrate the term, they depicted the situation in termite societies, where king and queen inhibit the reproduction of nest-mates by an unknown chemical substance. Paradoxically, half a century later, neither the source nor the chemical identity of this 'royal' pheromone is known. In this study, we report for the first time the secretion of polar compounds of proteinaceous origin by functional reproductives in three termite species, Prorhinotermes simplex, Reticulitermes santonensis and Kalotermes flavicollis. Aqueous washes of functional reproductives contained sex-specific proteinaceous compounds, virtually absent in non-reproducing stages. Moreover, the presence of these compounds was clearly correlated with the age of reproductives and their reproductive status. We discuss the putative function of these substances in termite caste recognition and regulation.
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