Articlenpj aging2025
Age, caste, and social context shape ovarian morphology and transcriptomic profiles in red harvester ants.
Article in npj aging, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Shifts in Demography in Changing Ecological Conditions in a Dependent-Lineage Population of Harvester Ant Colonies.Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- Gene Expression and Alternative Splicing Regulate Phenotypic Plasticity of a Social Wasp.Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
Abstract
The reproductive division of labor defines eusocial insects like ants, where queens reproduce and workers remain sterile. Yet, some workers retain rudimentary ovaries, raising questions about latent reproductive potential. We examined morphological and transcriptomic differences in Pogonomyrmex barbatus queen and worker ovaries at different maturation stages and social contexts. Queens had large, yolk-rich oocytes, while worker ovaries showed regression. Callow workers (<5 days) had more developed ovaries than mature ones (>20 days), suggesting age-related regression, even without reproduction. Queenless workers exhibited greater ovarian regression than queenright ones, indicating factors beyond queen presence may limit reproductive activation. We found ~2000 caste-specific differentially expressed genes, including those involved in metabolism, hormonal signaling, and epigenetic regulation. Queenless workers upregulated a fertility-linked gene and downregulated lipid metabolism genes. Our results show that age and social environment influence ovarian state, highlighting complex regulation of reproductive suppression and offering insight into reproductive senescence in eusocial systems.
Identifiers
What Socratic holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.