Cell: A single molecule controls the transformation of an unusual ant from a worker to a queen

According to the result of social conflict, the ants of the species "Harpegnathos saltator" will do something unusual: they can transform from worker ants to "queen", the so-called "player gate"

"Animal brains are plastic; that is, they can change their structure and function according to the environment," said Roberto Bonasio of the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania

In an ant colony, worker ants maintain the colony by looking for food and resisting invaders, while the main task of the queen is to lay eggs

In order to study the potential molecular events leading to this conversion, a research team led by co-first authors Janko Gospocic and Karl Glastad developed a method from ant Separate neurons from the body and let them survive in a plastic petri dish in the laboratory

These studies further confirmed that the two hormones, juvenile hormone and ecdysone, which exist at different levels in workers and gamers, produced different gene activation patterns in the brains of these two castes

Berger said: "This protein regulates the different genes of worker ants and players to prevent ants from making'inappropriate social' behavior

Bonasio added: "We did not expect that the same protein can silence different genes in the brains of people of different castes, thereby inhibiting the player's worker behavior and the worker's player behavior

These findings reveal the important role that social regulatory hormones and gene regulation play in the ability of animal brains to switch from one genetic model and social hierarchy to another

Researchers believe that the significance of this discovery may be far more profound than understanding the behavioral plasticity of ants and other insects

A single factor can inhibit different genes and behaviors in different brains.