Nature Communications (Aug 2016)

Notch signalling mediates reproductive constraint in the adult worker honeybee

  • Elizabeth J. Duncan,
  • Otto Hyink,
  • Peter K. Dearden

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms12427
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 7, no. 1
pp. 1 – 10

Abstract

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In honeybees, pheromones produced by the queen inhibit reproduction by workers and enforce a eusocial division of labour. Here, Duncan, Hyink and Dearden show that this inhibition is mediated by the Notch signalling pathway in the workers' ovaries.