Supergene research solves the mystery of tiny ant queens

An ant colony is sustained by way of advanced social dynamics, with every member—the queen, males and staff (sterile females)—contributing to the higher group. Some species add complexity to this dynamic with the addition of moderately small queens.

Researchers at UC Riverside tackled why these further queens are current by specializing in advanced genetic constructions, referred to as supergenes, locally. These supergenes management the origin and duplication of the petite queens in a single ant species. The outcomes of their examine can be found within the December subject of the journal Present Biology.

“We have been intrigued by the tiny queens,” stated senior creator Jessica Purcell, affiliate professor within the Division of Entomology at UCR. “It is a fantastic system (multiple-queen ant colonies) to check the evolution of supergenes, which exist in lots of varieties of organisms.”

Supergenes differ in dimension however encompass a cluster of genes on the identical chromosome which might be linked. The supergene suppresses recombination—a standard shuffling of genes throughout cell division—and transmits and preserves the structure of the supergene from era to era. These mega genes are related to traits, or phenotypes, expressed by many organisms, together with migratory patterns in fish and birds and the variety of queens in an ant colony.

Whereas not widespread in all ant colonies, Purcell and her colleagues targeted on the small queens in a single ant species, Formica cinerea, which is widespread all through Europe, spanning from Spain to western Siberia and from Scandinavia to the Balkans. These ants are useful, fortunately spending their days munching on spiders, mites and even sugary aphid poop.

The analysis crew recognized the presence of two supergenes that improve the colony queen depend and management queen dimension.

The queen is an important and largest ant within the colony. The queen has wings and may fly away, however her major function is to put eggs to develop generations of staff, males, and her successor. Employees dwell for about six months and spend their time foraging for meals and caring for the brood. Males have a shorter lifespan; they hardly ever depart the colony and mate as soon as with a future queen.

Tiny queens get hold of their energy from a supergene that shaped about 23 million years in the past and determines whether or not colonies have one queen or a number of queens. The researchers discovered one other supergene chargeable for ant dimension. The 2 supergenes collectively produce further queens which might be 20% smaller than a typical ant queen.

This pairing can have a substantial impact on the colony.

“Ants are social bugs and create big colonies the place nestmates are associated to one another, and colonies works nicely collectively to lift their relations,” stated Giulia Scarparo, an entomology post-doctoral pupil and first creator of the examine. “In a polygyne (a number of queen) colony, the connection between nestmates is decrease. The presence of many unrelated nestmates can result in reproductive conflicts amongst staff. “

The researchers recommend the conflicts that come up from these mixed supergenes might assist the colony increase and survive.

Establishing an unbiased colony requires the queen to fly to a brand new location and use her physique reserves housed within the wing muscle mass and physique fats to lift the primary brood of staff. This technique is dangerous and may result in the loss of life of the queen, and together with her the colony.

Tiny queens lack the power reserves to ascertain a brand new colony, however they’ll be a part of present colonies. This raises new questions to think about relating to the continuing cooperation amongst teams who are usually not genetically associated.

“The invention of supergenes related to microgynes (small queens) is the primary discovery of this kind,” stated Scarparo. “We predict these sort of queens might be socially parasitic—social bugs that benefit from different social bugs. Microgynes might be a very good start line to grasp the evolution of social parasitism, and we might have a supergene driving this life-style.”

Purcell and Scarparo have been joined on this challenge by Alan Brelsford, an assistant professor of biology, and Marie Palanchon, a graduate pupil in Purcell’s lab.

The article is titled “Social antagonism facilitates supergene enlargement in ants.”