Comparative study of the genomic consequences of social evolution

We present data from comparative population genomic RAD sequencing study that investigate how the evolution of sociality, including traits that reduce effective population size (cooperative breeding, reproductive skew, female biased sex ratio and a switch to an inbreeding mating system), affects genome-wide genetic diversity. All factors associated with this ‘social syndrome’ are expected to reduce effective population size and thereby increase effects of drift in accelerating depletion of population genetic diversity. This effect predicts reduced evolutionary potential and elevated risk of extinction, therefore such an evolutionary transition is proposed to be an evolutionary dead end. We show severe loss of genome-wide diversity in social species, both at individual, population and species level, this is likely to be a ubiquitous feature across species in different taxonomic groups with similar ecology and life style.