Monogynous and Polygynous Red Imported Fire Ants,<i>Solenopsis invicta</i>Buren (Hymenoptera: Formicidae), in Taiwan

Chen, Johnny S. C.; Shen, Chih-Ya; Lee, How‐Jing

doi:10.1603/0046-225x-35.1.167

Cited by 37 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…By targeting the most relevant sensory organ associated with this behavior, our study provided better sensitivity to detect tissue-specific differences compared to similar studies which used the whole bodies of workers (Wang et al, 2008) and queens (Nipitwattanaphon, Wang, Dijkstra, & Keller, 2013). Other transcriptomics experiments have been conducted in fire ants in other contexts (Calkins et al, 2018;Chen, Shen, & Lee, 2006;Morandin et al, 2016;Nipitwattanaphon et al, 2014;Qiu et al, 2018). Our results and follow-up experiments uncovered an interesting, differentially expressed OBP, SiOB12b′, whose expression patterns suggest that it may play a role in the differences between monogyne and polygyne colony forms in fire ants.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Has gene expression neofunctionalization in the fire ant antennae contributed to queen discrimination behavior?

Dang

Cohanim

Fontana

et al. 2019

Ecology and Evolution

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Queen discrimination behavior in the fire ant Solenopsis invicta maintains its two types of societies: colonies with one (monogyne) or many (polygyne) queens, yet the underlying genetic mechanism is poorly understood. This behavior is controlled by two supergene alleles, SB and Sb, with ~600 genes. Polygyne workers, having either the SB/SB or SB/Sb genotype, accept additional SB/Sb queens into their colonies but kill SB/SB queens. In contrast, monogyne workers, all SB/SB, reject all additional queens regardless of genotype. Because the SB and Sb alleles have suppressed recombination, determining which genes within the supergene mediate this differential worker behavior is difficult. We hypothesized that the alternate worker genotypes sense queens differently because of the evolution of differential expression of key genes in their main sensory organ, the antennae. To identify such genes, we sequenced RNA from four replicates of pooled antennae from three classes of workers: monogyne SB/SB, polygyne SB/SB, and polygyne SB/Sb. We identified 81 differentially expressed protein‐coding genes with 13 encoding potential chemical metabolism or perception proteins. We focused on the two odorant perception genes: an odorant receptor SiOR463 and an odorant‐binding protein SiOBP12. We found that SiOR463 has been lost in the Sb genome. In contrast, SiOBP12 has an Sb‐specific duplication, SiOBP12b′, which is expressed in the SB/Sb worker antennae, while both paralogs are expressed in the body. Comparisons with another fire ant species revealed that SiOBP12b′ antennal expression is specific to S. invicta and suggests that queen discrimination may have evolved, in part, through expression neofunctionalization.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Has gene expression neofunctionalization in the fire ant antennae contributed to queen discrimination behavior?

Dang

Cohanim

Fontana

et al. 2019

Ecology and Evolution

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“…Most of what is known comes from extensive studies in the fire ant Solenopsis invicta , which is native to South America and a nasty invasive pest in many countries . In this species, a single Mendelian locus explains intraspecific polymorphism in queen number .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Did the fire ant supergene evolve selfishly or socially?

Huang

Wang

2013

BioEssays

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The genetic basis for animal social organization is poorly understood. Fire ants provide one of the rare cases where variation in social organization has been demonstrated to be under genetic control, which amazingly, segregates as a single Mendelian locus. A recent genetic, genomic, and cytological analysis revealed that this locus actually consists of over 600 genes locked together in a supergene that possesses many characteristics of sex chromosomes. The fire ant social supergene also behaves selfishly, and an interesting evolutionary question is whether the genes incorporated first into the social supergene were those for social adaptation, selfish genetic drive, or something else. In depth, functional molecular genetic analysis in fire ants and comparative genomics in other closely related socially polymorphic species will be required to resolve this question.

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“…Since their accidental introduction to Taiwan in 2003,1 the red imported fire ant, Solenopsis invicta Buren (Hymenoptera: Formicidae), has rapidly become an important economic and agricultural pest, as well as a problem for local biodiversity and public health in both rural and urban areas. Several techniques are being used around the world either to control fire ant populations or to limit their further expansion.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%