Skip to content
DraconiticResearch
Search Sources API
203,234 studies31 sourcesUpdated 12 min ago
Peer-reviewedCC BYNature

A queen odour mediates reproductive suppression in a eusocial mammal

  • Mohammed A. Khallaf1,2
  • Daniel W Hart3
  • Wenhan Luo4
  • Firdevs Murad5,4,6
  • Felipe Cybis Pereira7,8
  • Daniel Mendez-Aranda9,4
  • Nicole Hagenah3
  • Alice Rossi4
  • Valérie Bégay4
  • Jan Okrouhlík10
  • Dietmar Krautwurst11
  • Mungo Kisinza Ngalameno12
9 more authors
  • André Ganswindt3
  • Alison J. Barker6
  • Radim Šumbera10
  • Markus Knaden13
  • Sophie Pezet8
  • Andrew Woehler14
  • Bill S. Hansson13
  • Nigel C. Bennett15
  • Gary R. Lewin16,17,18
18 affiliations
  1. 1Department of Zoology and Entomology, Faculty of Science, Assiut University, Assiut, Egypt. [email protected]
  2. 2Molecular Physiology of Somatic Sensation Laboratory, Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine in the Helmholtz Association (MDC), Berlin, Germany. [email protected]
  3. 3Department of Zoology and Entomology, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, Republic of South Africa
  4. 4Molecular Physiology of Somatic Sensation Laboratory, Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine in the Helmholtz Association (MDC), Berlin, Germany
  5. 5Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany
  6. 6Social Systems and Circuits Group, Max Planck Institute for Brain Research, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
  7. 7Iconeus, Paris, France
  8. 8Physics for Medicine Paris, INSERM, ESPCI Paris, CNRS, PSL Research University, Paris, France
  9. 9Department of Evolution of Sensory and Physiological Systems, Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence, Martinsried, Germany
  10. 10Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, České Budějovice, Czech Republic
  11. 11Leibniz Institute for Food Systems Biology at the Technical University of Munich, Freising, Germany
  12. 12Department of Veterinary Anatomy and Pathology, Sokoine University of Agriculture, Morogoro, Tanzania
  13. 13Department of Evolutionary Neuroethology, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Jena, Germany
  14. 14Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Janelia Research Campus, Ashburn, VA, USA
  15. 15Mammal Research Institute, Department of Zoology and Entomology, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, Republic of South Africa
  16. 16Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany. [email protected]
  17. 17German Center for Mental Health (DZPG), partner site Berlin, Berlin, Germany. [email protected]
  18. 18Molecular Physiology of Somatic Sensation Laboratory, Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine in the Helmholtz Association (MDC), Berlin, Germany. [email protected]
Open at sourceDOICite

Abstract

Eusociality is exceptionally rare in mammals, and its proximate mechanisms remain poorly understood. Naked mole-rats provide a striking example, with reproduction restricted to a single queen, while all other females remain infertile 1 . Here we identify a chemical signal in queens that can regulate this reproductive hierarchy. Isopropyl myristate is a low-volatility ester that is enriched in queens and nearly absent from non-breeding animals. Isopropyl myristate is detected by peripheral and central olfactory neurons and elicits avoidance in high-ranking animals. Exposure alters levels of prolactin and progesterone in non-breeders to suppress reproduction. Daily addition of isopropyl myristate to a queenless colony prevented queen succession, whereas withdrawal triggered aggression and reproductive competition. Isopropyl myristate was also detected in breeding females of several Fukomys mole-rat species, but reaches higher levels in naked mole-rats, paralleling their extreme reproductive skew. These findings reveal a chemical cue that can mediate reproductive suppression in a mammal, linking insect and mammalian eusociality.

Related

  1. A PVH-to-parabrachial BDNF circuit mediates non-aversive feeding suppression
    J. J. An, J.-W. Tan, Y. Chen +2
    bioRxivPreprintCC BY-NC-NDFull textNeurosciencebioRxiv
  2. Split suppression gene drives reveal a design tradeoff between inheritance and reproductive load in Aedes aegypti
    W. A. C. Gendron, A. L. Smidler, M. Li +6
    bioRxivPreprintCC BY-NC-NDFull textSystems & synthetic biologybioRxiv
  3. MerTK mediates dexamethasone-induced suppression of antiviral CD8+ T cell immunity and exacerbates chronic LCMV infection
    Tom Adomati, Thamer A. Hamdan, Barbara Seliger +6
    Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiologyPeer-reviewedCC BYFull textImmunologyEurope PMCPMC
  4. Dynamic workforce modulation and foraging efficiency in Eusocial insect colonies
    Daniel Campos, Javier Cristín, Pol Fernández-López +3
    PLOS Computational BiologyPeer-reviewedCC BYFull textZoology & animal behaviourPLOSEurope PMC
  5. Genetic connectivity in US Caribbean queen conch (Aliger gigas):Implications for management and forensic assignment
    D. M. Beltran, R. S. Appeldoorn, C. Prada
    bioRxivPreprintAll rights reservedFull textEcologybioRxiv

Cite

BibTeXRIS
BibTeX
@article{khallaf2026queen,
  title = {{A queen odour mediates reproductive suppression in a eusocial mammal}},
  author = {Mohammed A. Khallaf and Daniel W Hart and Wenhan Luo and Firdevs Murad and Felipe Cybis Pereira and Daniel Mendez-Aranda and Nicole Hagenah and Alice Rossi and Valérie Bégay and Jan Okrouhlík and Dietmar Krautwurst and Mungo Kisinza Ngalameno and André Ganswindt and Alison J. Barker and Radim Šumbera and Markus Knaden and Sophie Pezet and Andrew Woehler and Bill S. Hansson and Nigel C. Bennett and Gary R. Lewin},
  journal = {Nature},
  year = {2026},
  month = jul,
  doi = {10.1038/s41586-026-10772-5},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-026-10772-5},
  note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY  - JOUR
TI  - A queen odour mediates reproductive suppression in a eusocial mammal
AU  - Mohammed A. Khallaf
AU  - Daniel W Hart
AU  - Wenhan Luo
AU  - Firdevs Murad
AU  - Felipe Cybis Pereira
AU  - Daniel Mendez-Aranda
AU  - Nicole Hagenah
AU  - Alice Rossi
AU  - Valérie Bégay
AU  - Jan Okrouhlík
AU  - Dietmar Krautwurst
AU  - Mungo Kisinza Ngalameno
AU  - André Ganswindt
AU  - Alison J. Barker
AU  - Radim Šumbera
AU  - Markus Knaden
AU  - Sophie Pezet
AU  - Andrew Woehler
AU  - Bill S. Hansson
AU  - Nigel C. Bennett
AU  - Gary R. Lewin
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/07/15
JO  - Nature
DO  - 10.1038/s41586-026-10772-5
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-026-10772-5
AB  - Eusociality is exceptionally rare in mammals, and its proximate mechanisms remain poorly understood. Naked mole-rats provide a striking example, with reproduction restricted to a single queen, while all other females remain infertile 1 . Here we identify a chemical signal in queens that can regulate this reproductive hierarchy. Isopropyl myristate is a low-volatility ester that is enriched in queens and nearly absent from non-breeding animals. Isopropyl myristate is detected by peripheral and central olfactory neurons and elicits avoidance in high-ranking animals. Exposure alters levels of prolactin and progesterone in non-breeders to suppress reproduction. Daily addition of isopropyl myristate to a queenless colony prevented queen succession, whereas withdrawal triggered aggression and reproductive competition. Isopropyl myristate was also detected in breeding females of several Fukomys mole-rat species, but reaches higher levels in naked mole-rats, paralleling their extreme reproductive skew. These findings reveal a chemical cue that can mediate reproductive suppression in a mammal, linking insect and mammalian eusociality.
SN  - 0028-0836
SN  - 1476-4687
ER  -