Chemical communication of queen supergene status in an ant

Traits of interest to evolutionary biologists often have complex genetic architectures, the nature of which can confound traditional experimental study at single levels of analysis. In the fire ant Solenopsis invicta, the presence of a Mendelian ‘supergene’ is both necessary and sufficient to induce a shift in a fundamental property of social organization, from single-queen (monogyne) to multiple-queen (polygyne) colonies. This selfish genetic element, termed the Social b (Sb) supergene, contains > 600 genes that collectively promote its fitness by inducing the characteristic polygyne syndrome, in part by causing polygyne workers to accept only queens bearing the Sb element (a behaviour termed ‘worker Sb discrimination’). Here, we employ a newly developed behavioural assay to reveal that polygyne workers, many of which bear the Sb element, employ chemical cues on the cuticle of queens to achieve worker Sb discrimination, but we found no evidence for such pheromonally mediated worker ...

进化生物学家所关注的性状往往具有复杂的遗传结构，其内在属性会干扰单一分析维度下的传统实验研究。在红火蚁（Solenopsis invicta）中，孟德尔式超基因（supergene）的存在既是诱导蚁群社会组织核心属性转变的必要且充分条件，可将蚁群从单蚁后型（monogyne）转变为多蚁后型（polygyne）。这种被命名为社交b（Sb）超基因的自私遗传元件，包含超过600个基因，通过诱导典型的多后综合征协同提升自身适合度，其机制之一是促使多后制工蚁仅接纳携带Sb元件的蚁后，该行为被称为"工蚁Sb识别"。本研究借助新开发的行为学检测方法，证实多数携带Sb元件的多后制工蚁通过识别蚁后表皮的化学信号实现工蚁Sb识别，但未发现此类信息素介导的工蚁……