Vizueta, Joel and Xiong, Zijun and Ding, Guo and Larsen, Rasmus S. and Ran, Hao and Gao, Qionghua and Stiller, Josefin and Dai, Wei and Jiang, Wei and Zhao, Jie and Guo, Chunxue and Zhang, Xiafang and Zuo, Dashuang and Zhong, Wenjiang and Schiott, Morten and Liu, Chengyuan and Zhang, Hailin and Dai, Xueqin and Andreu, Ignasi and Shi, Yue and Tretter, Sandra and He, Ding and Gautam, Shubham and Li, Zelin and Hickey, Glenn and Ivens, Aniek B. F. and Meurville, Marie-Pierre and Hita-Garcia, Francisco and Kass, Jamie M. and Guenard, Benoit and Moreau, Corrie and Paten, Benedict and LeBoeuf, Adria C. and Economo, Evan P. and Chapuisat, Michel and Shik, Jonathan Z. and Ward, Philip S. and Heinze, Jürgen and Schultz, Ted R. and Li, Qiye and Dunn, Robert R. and Sanders, Nathan J. and Liu, Weiwei and Schrader, Lukas and Boomsma, Jacobus J. and Zhang, Guojie (2025) Adaptive radiation and social evolution of the ants. CELL, 188 (18). ISSN 0092-8674, 1097-4172
Full text not available from this repository. (Request a copy)Abstract
Ants originated over 150 million years ago through an irreversible transition to superorganismal colony life. Comparative analyses of 163 ant genomes, including newly generated whole-genome sequences of 145 ant species, reveal extensive genome rearrangements correlated with speciation rates. Meanwhile, conserved syntenic blocks are enriched with co-expressed genes involved in basal metabolism and caste differentiation. Gene families related to digestion, endocrine signaling, cuticular hydrocarbon synthesis, and chemoreception expanded in the ant ancestor, while many caste-associated genes underwent positive selection in the formicoid ancestor. Elaborations and reductions of queen-worker dimorphism and other social traits left convergent signatures of intensified or relaxed selection in conserved signaling and metabolic pathways, suggesting that a core gene set was used to diversify organizational complexity. Previously uncharacterized genetic regulators of caste development were confirmed by functional experiments. This study reconstructs the genetic underpinning of social traits and their integration within gene-regulatory networks shaping caste phenotypes.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | SUBFAMILY PSEUDOMYRMECINAE HYMENOPTERA; JUVENILE-HORMONE; COLONY SIZE; PHYLOGENETIC ANALYSIS; CONVERGENT EVOLUTION; GENOME ASSEMBLIES; R PACKAGE; FORMICIDAE; DROSOPHILA; SEQUENCE; |
| Subjects: | 500 Science > 570 Life sciences 500 Science > 590 Zoological sciences |
| Divisions: | Biology, Preclinical Medicine > Institut für Zoologie > Zoologie/Evolutionsbiologie (Prof. Dr. Jürgen Heinze) |
| Depositing User: | Dr. Gernot Deinzer |
| Date Deposited: | 24 Mar 2026 06:52 |
| Last Modified: | 24 Mar 2026 06:52 |
| URI: | https://pred.uni-regensburg.de/id/eprint/68077 |
Actions (login required)
 |
View Item |
