Abstract
The behavioral development of minor workers of the ant Pheidole dentata involves a progression of tasks beginning with brood care and culminating in foraging as individuals age. To understand the role of brain neurochemistry in age-related division of labor, we measured the levels of serotonin, dopamine and octopamine in individual brains of minor workers of different age. Serotonin and dopamine levels were significantly correlated with worker age: both increased as minor workers matured, and serotonin rose significantly in the oldest ants. In addition, the serotonin:dopamine ratio was significantly higher in the oldest workers. Octopamine levels did not change with age, although the ratios of octopamine:serotonin and octopamine:dopamine were significantly higher in the youngest workers. These age-associated changes in biogenic amine levels suggest an involvement of neuromodulators in minor worker behavioral ontogeny and temporal polyethism in P. dentata.
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Acknowledgements
We thank Dr Edward Kravitz for his advice, encouragement and sharing his laboratory facilities, and Friederike Haass for technical assistance with the HPLC analysis. Dr Samuel Beshers offered suggestions useful to manuscript preparation. We thank reviewers for their helpful comments. This research was supported in part by NSF grant IBN-0116857 (J. Traniello and R. Rosengaus, coPIs).
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Seid, M.A., Traniello, J.F.A. Age-related changes in biogenic amines in individual brains of the ant Pheidole dentata. Naturwissenschaften 92, 198–201 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-005-0610-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-005-0610-8