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Group-housed females promote production of asexual ootheca in American cockroaches

Overview of attention for article published in Zoological Letters, March 2017
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About this Attention Score

  • In the top 5% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • One of the highest-scoring outputs from this source (#5 of 183)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (98th percentile)

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12 news outlets
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5 blogs
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49 X users
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3 Facebook pages
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2 Wikipedia pages

Citations

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11 Dimensions

Readers on

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38 Mendeley
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Title
Group-housed females promote production of asexual ootheca in American cockroaches
Published in
Zoological Letters, March 2017
DOI 10.1186/s40851-017-0063-x
Pubmed ID
Authors

Ko Katoh, Masazumi Iwasaki, Shouhei Hosono, Atsushi Yoritsune, Masanori Ochiai, Makoto Mizunami, Hiroshi Nishino

Abstract

Facultative parthenogenesis, seen in many animal phyla, is a reproductive strategy in which females are able to generate offspring when mating partners are unavailable. In some subsocial and eusocial insects, parthenogenesis is often more prevalent than sexual reproduction. However, little is known about how social cooperation is linked to the promotion of parthenogenesis. The domiciliary cockroach Periplaneta americana is well-suited to addressing this issue as this species belongs to the superfamily Blattoidea, which diverged into eusocial termites and shows facultative parthenogenesis. We studied environmental factors that influence asexual production of ootheca using behavioral assays in P. americana. When more than three virgin females immediately after the imaginal molt were kept together in a small sealed container, they tended to produce egg cases (oothecae) via parthenogenesis earlier than did isolated females, resulting in apparent synchronization of ootheca production, even among females housed in different containers. In contrast, virgin females housed with genitalia-ablated males or group-housed females with antennae ablated did not significantly promote ootheca production compared to isolated females. Daily addition of the primary sex pheromone component to the container did not promote ootheca production in isolated females. Another line of study showed that grouped females make parthenogenesis more sustainable than previously known; a founder colony of 15 virgin females was sufficient to produce female progeny for a period of more than three years. Group-housed females promote and stabilize asexual ootheca production compared to isolated females, and that this promotion is triggered by female-specific chemosensory signals (other than sex pheromone) primarily detected by antennae. Promotion of ootheca production between females is likely to be an early stage of social cooperation, reminiscent of the foundation and maintenance of a colony by female pairs in the eusocial termite Reticulitermes speratus.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 49 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 38 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Unknown 38 100%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Ph. D. Student 6 16%
Student > Master 6 16%
Student > Bachelor 5 13%
Student > Doctoral Student 3 8%
Researcher 2 5%
Other 6 16%
Unknown 10 26%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 13 34%
Environmental Science 3 8%
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology 3 8%
Neuroscience 2 5%
Mathematics 1 3%
Other 4 11%
Unknown 12 32%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 171. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 03 August 2023.
All research outputs
#233,113
of 25,149,126 outputs
Outputs from Zoological Letters
#5
of 183 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#4,980
of 314,485 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Zoological Letters
#1
of 4 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,149,126 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 99th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 183 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 18.0. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 97% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 314,485 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 98% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 4 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has scored higher than all of them