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Expansion of presoldier cuticle contributes to head elongation during soldier differentiation in termites

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Abstract

In termites, the soldier caste possesses morphological features suitable for colony defence, despite some exceptions. Soldiers are differentiated via two moultings through a presoldier stage with dramatic morphogenesis. While a number of morphological modifications are known to occur during the presoldier moult, growth and morphogenesis seem to continue even after the moult. The present study, using the damp-wood termite Hodotermopsis sjostedti, carried out morphological and histological investigations on the developmental processes during the presoldier stage that is artificially induced by the application of a juvenile hormone analogue. Measurements of five body parameters indicated that head length significantly increased during the 14-day period after the presoldier moult, while it did not increase subsequently to the stationary moult (pseudergate moult as control). Histological observations also showed that the cuticular development played a role in the presoldier head elongation, suggesting that the soft and flexible presoldier cuticle contributed to the soldier morphogenesis in termites.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to express our gratitude to Tetsuo Kohyama for his advice regarding our statistical analysis. We would also like to thank Thomas Bourguignon, Kei Tanabe, Run Minoura, Masaru K. Hojo, and Chifune Sasa for their assistance in conducting the fieldwork. This work was supported by a Grant‐in‐Aid for Scientific Research A (No. 25251041) for TM and by Grant-in-Aid for JSPS Fellows for YS, from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School of Environmental Science, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Hokkaido, 060-0810, Japan

    Yasuhiro Sugime, Kota Ogawa, Dai Watanabe, Hiroyuki Shimoji & Toru Miura

  2. NIBB Core Research Facilities, National Institute for Basic Biology, Okazaki, 444-8585, Japan

    Kota Ogawa

  3. The Hakubi Center for Advanced Research and Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University, Kyoto, 606-8502, Japan

    Shigeyuki Koshikawa

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  1. Yasuhiro Sugime
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  2. Kota Ogawa
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  3. Dai Watanabe
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  4. Hiroyuki Shimoji
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  5. Shigeyuki Koshikawa
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  6. Toru Miura
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Correspondence to Toru Miura.

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Communicated by: Sven Thatje

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Sugime, Y., Ogawa, K., Watanabe, D. et al. Expansion of presoldier cuticle contributes to head elongation during soldier differentiation in termites. Sci Nat 102, 71 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-015-1322-3

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