Metabolic division of labor in social insects

2023 · doi:10.32942/x26c7x
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This theoretical paper examines metabolic division of labor in social insects, defining two forms: homosynergetic and heterosynergetic. The authors identify trophallaxis, trophic eggs, and cannibalism as primary mechanisms underlying the homosynergetic form, which partitions complementary metabolic tasks among colony members. They argue that this metabolic partitioning underpins fundamental aspects of colony physiology and may be a necessary feature for understanding evolutionary transitions to superorganismality. The paper does not explicitly discuss endometriosis or adenomyosis; it was included in the corpus via a keyword match in the upstream search index.

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Abstract

Social insects are known for reproductive and behavioral division of labor, but little attention has been paid to metabolic forms of division of labor. Metabolic division of labor is the partitioning of complementary metabolic tasks between individuals within the colony, and it is widespread in social insects. Here we pinpoint trophallaxis, trophic eggs and cannibalism as the most well-studied transfers underlying metabolic division of labor in social insects and discuss their evolution. We argue that metabolic division of labor underpins fundamental aspects of colony physiology and may be a necessary feature of superorganismal systems, impacting many life history traits. It is critical to investigate metabolic division of labor to better understand major evolutionary transition(s) to superorganismality in social insects.
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Abstract

Social insects are known for reproductive and behavioral division of labor, but little attention has been paid to metabolic forms of division of labor. Metabolic division of labor is the partitioning of complementary metabolic tasks between individuals, and it is widespread in social insects. We define two forms of metabolic division of labor, homosynergetic and heterosynergetic, we pinpoint trophallaxis, trophic eggs and cannibalism as the primary transfers underlying the homosynergetic form and discuss their evolution. We argue that homosynergetic metabolic division of labor underpins fundamental aspects of colony physiology and may be a necessary feature of superorganismal systems, impacting many life history traits. Investigating metabolic division of labor is necessary to understand major evolutionary transition(s) to superorganismality in social insects. DOI https://doi.org/10.32942/X26C7X Subjects Life Sciences

Keywords

social insects, metabolism, division of labor, cross-feeding, auxotrophy, social physiology, superorganism Dates Published: 2023-01-14 05:11 Last Updated: 2023-05-11 10:20 Older Versions License CC BY Attribution 4.0 International Additional Metadata Conflict of interest statement: None Data and Code Availability Statement: Not applicable Metrics Views: 1042 Downloads: 1104

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License: CC-BY-4.0