Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
Vitellogenin (vg)
Juvenile Hormone
Feedback Switch
E
Nurse
Forager
Figure 7.2. Blood titers of vitellogenin (Vg) and juvenile hormone (JH) in
worker honey bees as they age from emerging as an adult (E) through nurse to
forager. Reprinted from Current Topics in Developmental Biology, Page et al.,
“h e Development and Evolution of Division of Labor and Foraging
Specialization in a Social Insect ( Apis Mellifera L.),” 253-286, Fig. 7 (2006), with
permission from Elsevier.
according to the states of their ovaries, whether they are making eggs,
have eggs, or have just laid eggs. I also remembered a paper by Mary
Jane West-Eberhard where she wrote about the ovarian cycle in a prim-
itively social wasp and how she thought that it was involved in reproduc-
tive division of labor. We needed to look at the relationships between the
ovary and behavior, a relationship that is ubiquitous in insects and in-
deed throughout the animal world. I e-mailed Amdam and told her to be
prepared to make the connections between her work and mine.
I was not disappointed. Amdam was totally prepared for my ques-
tions about her dissertation work and had worked out a tentative model
of reproductive regulation of division of labor and an explanation of
how her double-repressor model was linked to the pollen-hoarding ar-
chitecture. She was awarded her degree, and a few months later she
joined my lab to begin the search for empirical evidence. We quickly
mapped out a set of experiments.
7.3 h
e Reproductive- Ground- Plan Hypothesis
and Early Experiments
Amdam called the hypothesis the “reproductive-ground-plan hypoth-
esis,” a variation on the ovarian-ground-plan hypothesis put forth by
Search WWH ::




Custom Search