Novel insights into the ontogeny of nestmate recognition in Polistes social wasps.

The importance of early experience in animals' life is unquestionable, and imprinting-like phenomena may shape important aspects of behaviour. Early learning typically occurs during a sensitive period, which restricts crucial processes of information storage to a specific developmental phase. T...

Descripción completa

Guardado en:

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales:	Lisa Signorotti, Federico Cappa, Patrizia d'Ettorre, Rita Cervo
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2014
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/cb96f0365bd0403487fa8311cd7894c4
Etiquetas:	Agregar Etiqueta Sin Etiquetas, Sea el primero en etiquetar este registro!

id	oai:doaj.org-article:cb96f0365bd0403487fa8311cd7894c4
record_format	dspace
spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:cb96f0365bd0403487fa8311cd7894c42021-11-18T08:20:16ZNovel insights into the ontogeny of nestmate recognition in Polistes social wasps.1932-620310.1371/journal.pone.0097024https://doaj.org/article/cb96f0365bd0403487fa8311cd7894c42014-01-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmid/24806637/pdf/?tool=EBIhttps://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203The importance of early experience in animals' life is unquestionable, and imprinting-like phenomena may shape important aspects of behaviour. Early learning typically occurs during a sensitive period, which restricts crucial processes of information storage to a specific developmental phase. The characteristics of the sensitive period have been largely investigated in vertebrates, because of their complexity and plasticity, both in behaviour and neurophysiology, but early learning occurs also in invertebrates. In social insects, early learning appears to influence important social behaviours such as nestmate recognition. Yet, the mechanisms underlying recognition systems are not fully understood. It is currently believed that Polistes social wasps are able to discriminate nestmates from non-nestmates following the perception of olfactory cues present on the paper of their nest, which are learned during a strict sensitive period, immediately after emergence. Here, through differential odour experience experiments, we show that workers of Polistes dominula develop correct nestmate recognition abilities soon after emergence even in absence of what have been so far considered the necessary cues (the chemicals spread on nest paper). P. dominula workers were exposed for the first four days of adult life to paper fragments from their nest, or from a foreign conspecific nest or to a neutral condition. Wasps were then transferred to their original nests where recognition abilities were tested. Our results show that wasps do not alter their recognition ability if exposed only to nest material, or in absence of nest material, during the early phase of adult life. It thus appears that the nest paper is not used as a source of recognition cues to be learned in a specific time window, although we discuss possible alternative explanations. Our study provides a novel perspective for the study of the ontogeny of nestmate recognition in Polistes wasps and in other social insects.Lisa SignorottiFederico CappaPatrizia d'EttorreRita CervoPublic Library of Science (PLoS)articleMedicineRScienceQENPLoS ONE, Vol 9, Iss 5, p e97024 (2014)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Lisa Signorotti Federico Cappa Patrizia d'Ettorre Rita Cervo Novel insights into the ontogeny of nestmate recognition in Polistes social wasps.
description	The importance of early experience in animals' life is unquestionable, and imprinting-like phenomena may shape important aspects of behaviour. Early learning typically occurs during a sensitive period, which restricts crucial processes of information storage to a specific developmental phase. The characteristics of the sensitive period have been largely investigated in vertebrates, because of their complexity and plasticity, both in behaviour and neurophysiology, but early learning occurs also in invertebrates. In social insects, early learning appears to influence important social behaviours such as nestmate recognition. Yet, the mechanisms underlying recognition systems are not fully understood. It is currently believed that Polistes social wasps are able to discriminate nestmates from non-nestmates following the perception of olfactory cues present on the paper of their nest, which are learned during a strict sensitive period, immediately after emergence. Here, through differential odour experience experiments, we show that workers of Polistes dominula develop correct nestmate recognition abilities soon after emergence even in absence of what have been so far considered the necessary cues (the chemicals spread on nest paper). P. dominula workers were exposed for the first four days of adult life to paper fragments from their nest, or from a foreign conspecific nest or to a neutral condition. Wasps were then transferred to their original nests where recognition abilities were tested. Our results show that wasps do not alter their recognition ability if exposed only to nest material, or in absence of nest material, during the early phase of adult life. It thus appears that the nest paper is not used as a source of recognition cues to be learned in a specific time window, although we discuss possible alternative explanations. Our study provides a novel perspective for the study of the ontogeny of nestmate recognition in Polistes wasps and in other social insects.
format	article
author	Lisa Signorotti Federico Cappa Patrizia d'Ettorre Rita Cervo
author_facet	Lisa Signorotti Federico Cappa Patrizia d'Ettorre Rita Cervo
author_sort	Lisa Signorotti
title	Novel insights into the ontogeny of nestmate recognition in Polistes social wasps.
title_short	Novel insights into the ontogeny of nestmate recognition in Polistes social wasps.
title_full	Novel insights into the ontogeny of nestmate recognition in Polistes social wasps.
title_fullStr	Novel insights into the ontogeny of nestmate recognition in Polistes social wasps.
title_full_unstemmed	Novel insights into the ontogeny of nestmate recognition in Polistes social wasps.
title_sort	novel insights into the ontogeny of nestmate recognition in polistes social wasps.
publisher	Public Library of Science (PLoS)
publishDate	2014
url	https://doaj.org/article/cb96f0365bd0403487fa8311cd7894c4
work_keys_str_mv	AT lisasignorotti novelinsightsintotheontogenyofnestmaterecognitioninpolistessocialwasps AT federicocappa novelinsightsintotheontogenyofnestmaterecognitioninpolistessocialwasps AT patriziadettorre novelinsightsintotheontogenyofnestmaterecognitioninpolistessocialwasps AT ritacervo novelinsightsintotheontogenyofnestmaterecognitioninpolistessocialwasps
_version_	1718421951395921920

Novel insights into the ontogeny of nestmate recognition in Polistes social wasps.

Ejemplares similares