A high recombination rate in eusocial Hymenoptera: evidence from the common wasp Vespula vulgaris

Sirviö, Anu; Johnston, J. Spencer; Wenseleers, Tom; Pamilo, Pekka

doi:10.1186/1471-2156-12-95

Cited by 31 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…DNA methylation might promote genomic flexibility and thus phenotypic plasticity [74], and could therefore play a role in the evolution of caste differences in eusocial insects [75,76]. Finally, high recombination rates (which are exceptionally high in some advanced eusocial species [77][78][79][80]) could also be linked to accelerated evolution of caste-related traits [81][82][83].…”

Section: Box 1 Additional Genomic Mechanisms In Eusocial Evolutionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Climbing the social ladder: the molecular evolution of sociality

Rehan

Toth

2015

Trends in Ecology & Evolution

158

185

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Section: Box 1 Additional Genomic Mechanisms In Eusocial Evolutionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Climbing the social ladder: the molecular evolution of sociality

Rehan

Toth

2015

Trends in Ecology & Evolution

158

185

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“…Eusocial societies are diverse. Theory predicts that selection for increased recombination rates depends on many aspects a species' ecology (Wilfert et al ., ; Sirviö et al ., ; Kent & Zayed, ). We therefore decided not just to test the absolute difference between the chromosome number of solitary and eusocial species, but also to consider the rate at which chromosome number has evolved.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Recent analyses comparing molecular estimates of recombination between eusocial and solitary Hymenoptera found that recombination rates of eusocial Hymenoptera are indeed higher than in solitary hymenopterans or any other metazoan that has been measured (Wilfert et al ., ; Sirviö et al ., ). Unfortunately, these analyses were based on just a small number of taxa (six eusocial and four solitary Hymenoptera) and did not control for phylogenetic nonindependence.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Recombination, chromosome number and eusociality in the Hymenoptera

Ross

Blackmon

Lorite

et al. 2015

J of Evolutionary Biology

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Extraordinarily high rates of recombination have been observed in some eusocial species. The most popular explanation is that increased recombination increases genetic variation among workers, which in turn increases colony performance, for example by increasing parasite resistance. However, support for the generality of higher recombination rates among eusocial organisms remains weak, due to low sample size and a lack of phylogenetic independence of observations. Recombination rate, although difficult to measure directly, is correlated with chromosome number. As predicted, several authors have noted that chromosome numbers are higher among the eusocial species of Hymenoptera (ants, bees and wasps). Here, we present a formal comparative analysis of karyotype data from 1567 species of Hymenoptera. Contrary to earlier studies, we find no evidence for an absolute difference between chromosome number in eusocial and solitary species of Hymenoptera. However, we find support for an increased rate of chromosome number change in eusocial taxa. We show that among eusocial taxa colony size is able to explain some of the variation in chromosome number: intermediate-sized colonies have more chromosomes than those that are either very small or very large. However, we were unable to detect effects of a number of other colony characteristics predicted to affect recombination rate – including colony relatedness and caste number. Taken together, our results support the view that a eusocial lifestyle has led to variable selection pressure for increased recombination rates, but that identifying the factors contributing to this variable selection will require further theoretical and empirical effort.

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“…Despite some variability of the local recombination rate, Apis mellifera exhibits a high recombination across its entire genome, independently of chromosome size [29]. These results and the multiple independent evolution of high recombination in social insects [31] suggest that recombination patterns in social insects reflect a specific adaptive reason, rather than a general structural requirement for proper chromosome segregation. Similar to the explanation of multiple mating, several hypotheses exist to explain the high recombination rates in social insects [30], [32], [33], [34], including an alleged increase of colony genetic diversity by high recombination rates [27], [28].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 88%

“…In contrast, the high recombination rates have been discovered in species that also exhibit very high queen mating numbers [28], [31], [32], [35]. This suggests that multiple mating and high recombination rates do not substitute for each other.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multiple Mating But Not Recombination Causes Quantitative Increase in Offspring Genetic Diversity for Varying Genetic Architectures

2012

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Explaining the evolution of sex and recombination is particularly intriguing for some species of eusocial insects because they display exceptionally high mating frequencies and genomic recombination rates. Explanations for both phenomena are based on the notion that both increase colony genetic diversity, with demonstrated benefits for colony disease resistance and division of labor. However, the relative contributions of mating number and recombination rate to colony genetic diversity have never been simultaneously assessed. Our study simulates colonies, assuming different mating numbers, recombination rates, and genetic architectures, to assess their worker genotypic diversity. The number of loci has a strong negative effect on genotypic diversity when the allelic effects are inversely scaled to locus number. In contrast, dominance, epistasis, lethal effects, or limiting the allelic diversity at each locus does not significantly affect the model outcomes. Mating number increases colony genotypic variance and lowers variation among colonies with quickly diminishing returns. Genomic recombination rate does not affect intra- and inter-colonial genotypic variance, regardless of mating frequency and genetic architecture. Recombination slightly increases the genotypic range of colonies and more strongly the number of workers with unique allele combinations across all loci. Overall, our study contradicts the argument that the exceptionally high recombination rates cause a quantitative increase in offspring genotypic diversity across one generation. Alternative explanations for the evolution of high recombination rates in social insects are therefore needed. Short-term benefits are central to most explanations of the evolution of multiple mating and high recombination rates in social insects but our results also apply to other species.

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A high recombination rate in eusocial Hymenoptera: evidence from the common wasp Vespula vulgaris

Cited by 31 publications

References 33 publications

Climbing the social ladder: the molecular evolution of sociality

Climbing the social ladder: the molecular evolution of sociality

Recombination, chromosome number and eusociality in the Hymenoptera

Multiple Mating But Not Recombination Causes Quantitative Increase in Offspring Genetic Diversity for Varying Genetic Architectures

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