Influência da patrilinhagem na determinação de castas em formigas (Hymenoptera, Formicidae): uma revisão sistemática

Abstract

The division of labor between workers from different castes is one of the determinants of the ecological success of ants. The mechanisms by which the caste determination of members of a colony occurs, allowing the complex level of organization in more derived species are still discussed. At first, it was believed that different varieties were determined by environmental factors such as nutrition and temperature. However, with the advent of molecular studies and the development of new technologies, the different patrilineages of workers are identified as a source that promotes the determination of physical, age and physiological castes, as well as the differential allocation of workers in different tasks. The different patrilineages observed in intracolonial workers are a result of the queen mating with multiple males (polyandry). The present study consists of a systematic review that aimed to clarify the relationship between patrilineage and social organization in polyandric ant colonies from the analysis of 17 scientific articles, found in the Web of Science and Scopus databases, following the PRISMA protocol. The analysis of the articles points out mainly that the different patrilineages interfere in the propensity of workers to develop in a certain caste or preferentially perform a certain task, however there is no exclusivity of a single patrilineage to a single caste or task. It is worth noting that, despite the genetic propensity, environmental factors interfere in the final determination of the caste of a worker and / or in her allocation to a certain task. Further investigation into the influence of this genetic variation on the specialization of individuals within a caste, as well as the results of the interaction between genetic and environmental factors, opens up perspectives for an ever deeper understanding of the social organization of ant colonies.