Camponotus floridanus Transcriptome or Gene expression

Social insects frequently engage in oral fluid exchange – trophallaxis – between adults, and between adults and larvae. Although trophallaxis is normally considered a simple food-sharing mechanism, we hypothesized that endogenous components of this fluid might underlie a novel means of chemical communication. Through protein and small-molecule mass spectrometry and RNA sequencing in the ant Camponotus floridanus, we found that trophallaxis fluid contains a set of specific proteins, hydrocarbons, microRNAs, and Juvenile Hormone, an important insect growth regulator. When C. floridanus nursing workers' food, and thus trophallaxis fluid, was supplemented with this hormone, the larvae they reared were twice as likely to complete metamorphosis and became larger workers. Comparison of trophallaxis fluid proteins across social insect species revealed that many are regulators of growth and development. These results raise the possibility that, in addition to its role in food transfer, trophallaxis is a mode of communication that enables communal control of colony phenotypes.