Comparative transcriptomics and phylostratigraphy of Argentine ant odorant receptors

Nestmate recognition in ants is regulated through the detection of cuticular hydrocarbons by odorant receptors (ORs) in the antennae. These ORs are crucial for maintaining colony cohesion that allows invasive ant species to dominate colonized environments. In the invasive Argentine ant, Linepithema humile, ORs regulating nestmate recognition are thought to be present in a clade of nine exon odorant receptors, but the identity of the specific genes remains unknown. We sought to narrow down the list of candidate genes using transcriptomics and phylostratigraphy. Comparative transcriptomic analyses were conducted on the antennae, head, thorax, and legs of Argentine ant workers. We have identified a set of twenty-one nine-exon odorant receptors enriched in the antennae compared to the other tissues, allowing for downstream verification of whether they can detect Argentine ant cuticular hydrocarbons. Further investigation of these ORs could allow us to further understand the mechanisms under..., , , # Comparative transcriptomics and phylostratigraphy of Argentine ant odorant receptors

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.83bk3jb1d](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.83bk3jb1d)

Contains phylostratigraphy analysis results for PLoS ONE submission. Data were generated by comparing the *L. humile* proteome to thirty proteomes from *L. humile* and other ant and insect species via BLASTp analysis (detailed in \"Table S1.xlsx\"). Using these data, we determined that odorant receptor proteins are more likely to show more recent origins in evolutionary history than the *L. humile* proteome in general. However, of the 338 taxonomically-restricted proteins we found, none were odorant receptors.

## Description of the data and file structure

###### Phylostratigraphy Final.xlsx

Multipage Excel spreadsheet showing the BLAST results and phylostratigraphic distances of each protein in the *L. humile* proteome. Distance is measured in \"nodes\", which is the amount of nodes separating *L. humile* and the s...