Wasmannia genome

Little fire ant, Wasmannia auropunctata is invasive species that native to Central and South America. This species successfully invade to new habitat and spread all over the world. In native habitats, W. auropunctata employ a typical Hymenopteran system of reproduction. In introduced areas however, reproduction system is drastically changed, -- queens and males are produced with only maternal and paternal genomes, respectively, whereas sterile workers are produced sexually. Goal of our research is to understand what kind of selections or genomic change are significant for transition of these different tyeps of reproduction systems using samples collected in native and invased area.