Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.
TaqMan Express Plates

Site Tools

  • AAAS
  • Subscribe
  • Feedback

Site Search

Search Advanced

Science 9 November 2007:
Vol. 318. no. 5852, pp. 985 - 987
DOI: 10.1126/science.1146711
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Reports

Sex-Linked Genetic Influence on Caste Determination in a Termite

Yoshinobu Hayashi,1 Nathan Lo,2 Hitoshi Miyata,1 Osamu Kitade1*

The most ecologically successful and destructive termite species are those with both a nymph caste and an irreversibly wingless worker caste. The early developmental bifurcation separating these castes is widely accepted to be strictly environmentally determined. We present evidence that genotype also influences this process. Offspring from four different crosses of nymph- and worker-derived secondary reproductive individuals had strongly differentiated caste and sex ratios, despite uniform rearing conditions. These data fit an X-linked, one-locus-two-allele model. Of five possible genotypes, one was lethal, two resulted in workers, and two resulted in either nymphs or environmentally determined workers. Caste is thus controlled both by environment and by a complex genetic inheritance pattern.

1 Natural History Laboratory, College of Science, Ibaraki University, Mito, Ibaraki 310-8512, Japan.
2 Behaviour and Genetics of Social Insects Laboratory, School of Biological Sciences, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales 2006, Australia.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: kitade{at}mx.ibaraki.ac.jp

Read the Full Text

ADVERTISEMENT
Click Me!

ADVERTISEMENT
Click Me!

To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)