Transcriptomics on social interactions in the termite Reticulitermes speratus

The purpose of this study is to understand how social interactions with soldiers influences on soldier differentiation of workers in the subterranean termite Reticulitermes speratus. In this study, we performed a transcriptomic analysis using workers that had or had not experienced social interactions with soldiers during experimental periods to identify genes whose expression levels in workers are affected by the social interactions. Influences of juvenile hormone application, which promotes solider differentiation of workers, on gene expression levels were also examined in those workers to know if the social interactions had suppressive effects on the soldier differentiation.