02/09/2026
🪳 In eusocial insects, queen pheromones help maintain reproductive order within the colony. But where and how these chemical signals are produced can remain surprisingly difficult to pin down.
Researchers from IOCB Prague and collaborating institutions have now identified the in vivo source of the queen pheromone in the termite Embiratermes neotenicus. The study was led by the Robert Hanus Group, with Jitka Štáfková, Natan Horáček, Ondřej Lukšan, Romana Hadravová, Lenka Ulrychová, Jan Křivánek, Karel Harant, Ana Maria Costa-Leonardo, and colleagues.
The team focused on EneoC, a queen-specific terpene synthase previously shown to produce the sesquiterpene alcohol (3R,6E)-nerolidol in vitro. Using RNA interference, transcriptomics, proteomics, immunolocalization, they demonstrated that EneoC is responsible for producing this queen pheromone in living queens.
EneoC was strongly upregulated in queens at both transcript and protein levels and ranked among the most abundant queen proteins. The enzyme was found in epidermal secretory cells across the queen’s body surface, specifically in structures derived from mitochondria. The study also suggests that another enzyme, EneoB, may supply the substrate for EneoC in the same modified mitochondrial environment.
Interestingly, EneoC was absent from eggs, indicating that eggs do not actively produce the pheromone themselves but likely acquire it from queens.
The findings establish EneoC as the key enzyme responsible for maintaining queen reproductive dominance in the complex breeding system of E. neotenicus.
Read the paper: Štáfková, J.; Horáček, N.; Lukšan, O.; Hadravová, R.; Ulrychová, L.; Křivánek, J.; Harant, K.; Costa-Leonardo, A. M.; Hanus, R. EneoC, a Queen-Specific Terpene Synthase, Produces the Queen Pheromone in Epidermal Secretory Cells of Embiratermes neotenicus Queens. Insect Biochemistry and Molecular Biology 2026. DOI: 10.1016/j.ibmb.2026.104631
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