In social animals, individuals often use aggressive behavior to enforce their dominance over subordinates. An individual’s dominance is most often tied to their reproductive physiology, as dominants will undertake the majority of reproduction. In paper wasps of the genus Polistes, multiple individuals regularly co-found nests together, and a dominance hierarchy is established via aggressive contests to determine which co-foundress will do the majority of egg-laying. Previous studies have suggested that the egg-yolk protein vitellogenin is an important regulator of aggressive behavior in social Hymenoptera, including Polistes. In this study we use RNA-interference to interrogate the functional role of vitellogenin gene expression for aggression in Polistes fuscatus foundresses. Additionally, we investigate how vitellogenin regulates aggression in workers, which also form dominance hierarchies within a nest, as well as employ aggressive behavior toward unfamiliar wasps between nests.
