It is long established that queens of social insects, including termites, maintain their reproductive dominance with queen primer pheromones (QPPs). Yet, the QPP chemistry has only been elucidated in a single species of lower termites. By contrast, the most diversified termite family Termitidae (higher termites), comprising over 70% of termite species, has so far resisted all attempts at QPP identification. Here, we show that the queen- and egg-specific sesquiterpene (3R,6E)-nerolidol acts as the QPP in the higher termite Embiratermes neotenicus. This species has a polygynous breeding system, in which the primary queen is replaced by multiple neotenic queens of parthenogenetic origin. We demonstrate that (3R,6E)-nerolidol suppresses the development of these parthenogenetic queens and thus mimics the presence of mature queen(s). It acts as an airborne signal and may be used to optimize the number of queens, thus being the key regulatory element in the special breeding system of E. neotenicus.

Chemistry of Social Insects Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences Prague Czech Republic

Czech University of Life Sciences Prague Czech Republic

Faculty of Science Charles University Prague Czech Republic

Université Paris Est Créteil Sorbonne Université Université Paris Cité CNRS INRAE IRD iEES Paris Créteil France

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Commun Biol. 2024 Apr 16;7(1):464. doi: 10.1038/s42003-024-06150-4. PubMed

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