A research group consisting of Kyoto University, Hamamatsu University School of Medicine, and Niigata University succeeded in collecting and analyzing the "royal food" of the king and queen of termites for the first time in the world.
Ants, bees, and termites are social insects with a sophisticated system of division of labor, in which workers and breeders specialize in their respective roles.The kings and queens are fed by worker ants and can continue to breed vigorously for decades.The special diet of the king and queen (named "royal food" in this research) to maintain this high fertility is known to be royal jelly, which is given to the larvae that become queens in honeybees, but it is completely unknown in termites.
In this study, we first collected kings and queens of Yamato termites from a field colony (nest) and observed their feeding behavior by worker ants while rearing them in glass containers.As a result, we found that worker ants discriminate between kings and queens and selectively feed them.
Next, we collected the royal food directly from the worker ants feeding the king and queen, and analyzed the ingredients. We found that the royal food contained sphingolipids, diacylglycerol, short-chain peptides, proteins, etc., and that the food composition of the king and queen was different.
In addition, tracking of the labeled substances revealed that phosphatidylinositol and acetyl-L-carnitine, which are royal food components, are produced from cellulose eaten by worker ants, and are transferred to the queen's body by oral feeding.In other words, it is thought that royal food is produced and delivered to the king and queen through the metabolic pathways between individuals within the colony (nest).
Furthermore, a comparison of the gastrointestinal tract structure using micro-CT revealed that the hindgut, which decomposes the wood eaten by the intestinal microbes, occupies a large proportion of worker ants, whereas the midgut, which is the nutrient absorption organ, is large in kings and queens.This is also one of the mechanisms that support the division of labor system that divides the roles of foraging and digestion.
This research opens the door to a new research area, the royal food of termite kings and queens, which are highly active and long-lived, and is expected to lead to research that contributes to human health and longevity.
Paper information:[PNAS Nexus] The royal food of termites shows king and queen specificity
