Speaker
Description
Among insects, ants possess the largest odorant receptor (OR) repertoires, thought to relate to their reliance on pheromones to mediate colony communication. Yet we still lack a detailed understanding of how recently duplicated OR genes are chosen by neurons, integrated into circuits, and molded by selection to drive behavior. Using the clonal raider ant Ooceraea biroi, a blind ant species that relies heavily on its olfactory system to mediate colony-level behavior, I investigate the development, wiring, and evolution of the ant olfactory system. At ESITO 2025, I aim to discuss a novel mechanism in the clonal raider ant that allows olfactory sensory neurons to produce tandemly arrayed ORs in a mutually exclusive manner. My results hint at a conserved strategy among hymenopteran insects and may help explain the rapid expansion and diversification of their OR repertoires.
