Social Supergene in Red Ants

Social Supergene in Red Ants
make them Invincible , they have proven the world what is like staying together to survive
Scientists from Queen Mary University of London have discovered that a new form of ant
society spread across species. They found that after the new form of society evolved in one
species, a “social supergene” carrying the instruction-set for the new social form spread into
other species. This spread occurred through hybridization, i.e., breeding between ants of
different species. This unlikely event provides an alternate way of life, making the ants more
successful than if they only had the original social form.
Red fire ants originally had only colonies with one queen. The team previously discovered that
about one million years ago, a new social form evolved where colonies could have dozens of
queens. A particular version of a large section of chromosome, named the “social supergene,”
includes the genetic information necessary to make workers accept more than one queen. The
new research, published today (March 11, 2022) in Nature Communications, analyzed the entire
genomes or instruction sets of 365 male fire ants to examine the evolution of the social
supergene, and found that the same version of this chromosome is present in multiple fire ant
species.
Transfer of large amounts of genetic information across species is rare because of genetic
incompatibilities. However, in this case, the advantages of having multiple queens overrode the
incompatibilities, and the genetic material repeatedly spread to other species from the one
source species in which this new social form evolved. The multiple-queen social form has
advantages in several situations. For example, a multiple-queen colony has more workers and
thus can outcompete a colony with only one queen. Furthermore, if there is a flood, a colony
with multiple queens is less likely to become queenless.
Dr. Yannick Wurm, Reader in Evolutionary Genomics and Bioinformatics at Queen Mary
University of London and a fellow of The Alan Turing Institute said: “This research reveals how
evolutionary innovations can spread across species. It also shows how evolution works at the
level of DNA and chromosomes.
“It was incredibly surprising to discover that other species could acquire a new form of social
organization through hybridization. The supergene region that creates multi-queen colonies is a
large piece of chromosome that contains hundreds of genes. The many parts of a genome
evolve to work together in fine-tuned manners, thus suddenly having a mix with different
versions of many genes from another species is complicated and quite rare.
“Instead of executing extra queens as they would in a single-queen colony, the new version of
the supergene leads workers to accept multiple queens. Having studied the history of the
supergene and new social form extensively, we next want to identify which genes or parts of the
supergene region, lead to these changes in behavior. This will also help fill more gaps in our
understanding of evolutionary processes.”
Rodrigo Pracana, a lead author of the study, also at Queen Mary University of London added:
“Our study shows how detailed analysis of large numbers of wild animals can provide surprising
new insight on how evolution works.”
The team from Queen Mary were previously among the first in the world to apply large-scale
DNA-sequencing approaches to wild insects – which enabled them to discover one of the first
well-known supergenes.
Red fire ants are native to South America and infamous for their painful sting. One of these
species is known in many other parts of the world, where it is aggressiveness and high
population density have made it an invasive pest. Efforts at controlling the spread of this species
have largely been unsuccessful, as indicated by its Latin name, Solenopsis invicta, meaning
“the invincible.”
Reference: “Recurring adaptive introgression of a supergene variant that determines social

organization” by Eckart Stolle, Rodrigo Pracana, Federico López-Osorio, Marian K. Priebe,
Gabriel Luis Hernández, Claudia Castillo-Carrillo, Maria Cristina Arias, Carolina Ivon Paris,
Martin Bollazzi, Anurag Priyam and Yannick Wurm, 11 March 2022, Nature Communications.
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-28806-7
The research was supported by the Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change,
with Dr. Eckart Stolle assisting as part of the team at Queen Mary before continuing this work at
the Leibniz Institute.
Message from Guruji –

Dear Yogi Aspirants
Even ants became super success by joining other ants making gene partnerships to survive and
stay strong. Wish that super social gene would exist in every human to accept and respect
everything around us for collective progress staying connected.
May god bless you
Guruji 🙏🙏🙏

Social Supergene in Red Ants

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Social Supergene in Red Ants

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Social Supergene in Red Ants

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Social Supergene in Red Ants

Reference: “Recurring adaptive introgression of a supergene variant that determines social

Message from Guruji –

You might also like