Comparison of fire ant adult workers with different Gp-9 (BB and Bb) genotypes and from monogyne and polygyne colonies.

In fire ants, a complex colony level phenotype, colony queen number, is completely associated with a single Mendelian factor marked by the gene Gp-9. The first aim of this study was to investigate whether variation in the genomic region marked by Gp-9 is associated with differences in patterns of expression of genes other than Gp-9 in workers. The second aim was to study how the social environment (i.e., presence or absence of nestmate workers with the b allele) can alter individual gene expression patterns. Keywords: Genotype comparison and social form comparison Three-condition experiment: Gp-9 BB monogyne, Gp-9 BB polygyne, and Gp-9 Bb polygyne. Biological replicates: 8 of each sample type from 2004 compared to common reference RNA batch 2004, and 12 of each sample type from 2006 compared to common reference RNA batch 2006. A fourth condition, Gp-9 bb polygyne with 1 biological replicate from 2004 and 1 from 2006, was compared to the respective reference RNA batch. One replicate per array.