Social caste switching triggers emergence of novel cellular identities in Zootermopsis termites
Catherine Gatt, Kensei Kikuchi, Cong Liu, Esra Kaymak, Simon Hellemans, Fuka Koja, Thomas Bourguignon, Fabio Zanini
The paper generates single-cell transcriptomic atlases of Zootermopsis termites to investigate if caste switching creates new cellular identities, finding that while some cell types are caste-specific, key physiological pathways remain largely unchanged.
bioRxiv · Apr 15, 2026 · PreprintEvolutionary Biology