EL DESTINO DE LOS INSECTOS SOCIALES DEPENDE DE UN ÚNICO GEN

Un único gen parece determinar si un insecto social será reina u obrera.

https://buff.ly/2NWgA1z

A study of ants provides information on the evolution of social insects: One gene in particular determines whether an ant becomes queen or worker -- ScienceDaily: One of the great puzzles of evolutional biology is what induced certain living creatures to abandon solitary existence in favor of living in collaborative societies, as seen in the case of ants and other social, colony-forming insects. A major characteristic of so-called eusocial species is the division of labor between queens that lay eggs and workers that take care of the brood and perform other tasks. But what is it that determines that a queen should lay eggs and that workers shouldn't reproduce? And how did this distinction come about during the course of evolution? Evolutionary biologists have now found a completely unexpected answer: one single gene called insulin-like peptide 2 (ILP2), which is probably activated by better nutrition, stimulates the ovaries and triggers reproduction.