Hymenopteran-specific TRPA channel from the Texas leaf cutter ant(Atta texana)is heat and cold activated and expression correlates with environmental temperature  

作　　者：Julia M.York Timothy N.Taylor Sarah LaPotin Ying Lu Ulrich Mueller 

机构地区：[1]Department of Evolution,Ecology,and Behavior,University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign,Urbana,USA [2]Department of Integrative Biology,University of Texas at Austin,Austin,USA [3]Institute for Neuroscience,University of Texas at Austin,Austin,USA [4]Department of Human Genetics,University of Utah,Salt Lake City,USA

出　　处：《Insect Science》2025年第1期301-320,共20页昆虫科学(英文版)

摘　　要：Leaf cutting ants of the genus Atta cultivate fungal gardens,carefully modifying environmental conditions to maintain optimal temperature for fungal growth.Antennal nerves from Atta are highly temperature sensitive,but the underlying molecular sensor is unknown.Here,we utilize Atta texana(Texas leaf cutter ant)to investigate the molecular basis of ant temperature sensation and how it might have evolved as the range expanded northeast across Texas from ancestral populations in Mexico.We focus on transient receptor potential(TRP)channel genes,the best characterized temperature sensor proteins in animals.Atta texana antennae express 6 of 13 Hymenopteran TRP channel genes and sequences are under a mix of relaxed and intensified selection.In a behavioral assay,we find A.texana workers prefer 24℃(range 21−26℃)for fungal growth.There was no evidence of regulatory evolution across a temperature transect in Texas,but instead Hymenoptera-specific TRPA(HsTRPA)expression highly correlated with ambient temperature.When expressed in vitro,HsTRPA from A.texana is temperature activated with Q10 values exceeding 100 on initial exposure to temperatures above 33℃.Surprisingly,HsTRPA also appears to be activated by cooling,and therefore to our knowledge,the first non-TRPA1 ortholog to be described with dual heat/cold activation and the first in any invertebrate.

关 键 词：ELECTROPHYSIOLOGY evolution INVERTEBRATE leaf cutter ants temperature TRPchannels 

分 类 号：R73[医药卫生—肿瘤]