Polymorphic social organization in an ant

Polymorphic social organization in an ant.

Identifying species exhibiting variation in social organization is an important step towards explaining the genetic and environmental factors underlying social evolution. In most studied populations of the ant Leptothorax acervorum, reproduction is shared among queens in multiple queen colonies (polygyny). By contrast, reports from other populations, but based on weaker evidence, suggest a sing...

Genetic control of social organization in an ant.

A central issue in evolutionary biology is the extent to which complex social organization is under genetic control. We have found that a single genomic element marked by the protein-encoding gene Gp-9 is responsible for the existence of two distinct forms of social organization in the fire ant Solenopsis invicta. This genetic factor influences the reproductive phenotypes and behavioral strateg...

Ant Algorithms for Self-Organization in Social Networks

Peer-to-peer networks and folksonomies are like living organisms, ever growing and changing as time goes on. This thesis addresses the applicability of algorithms derived from the self-organizing and emergent behavior observed from ant colonies to these complex networks for two specific purposes, namely (1) content-based search in unstructured peer-topeer networks, and (2) the extraction of ada...

Queen acceptance in a socially polymorphic ant

The Social Structure of an Organization: Representation for Success

Organization theory is a discipline on the boundary between economics of organizations, sociology of organizations, management and political science. She is interested in organizations, both commercial and non-commercial, in all their diversity (company, hospital, union, organization, administration, conventions). It analyzes their functioning, structure and development for the purpose of...