Data from: The genome of the clonal raider ant Cerapachys biroi

Social insects are important models for social evolution and behavior. However, in many species, experimental control over important factors that regulate division of labor, such as genotype and age, is limited. Furthermore, most species have fixed queen and worker castes, making it difficult to establish causality between the molecular mechanisms that underlie reproductive division of labor, the hallmark of insect societies. Here we present the genome of the queenless clonal raider ant Cerapachys biroi, a powerful new study system that does not suffer from these constraints. Using cytology and RAD-seq, we show that C. biroi reproduces via automixis with central fusion and that heterozygosity is lost extremely slowly. As a consequence, nestmates are almost clonally related (r = 0.996). Workers in C. biroi colonies synchronously alternate between reproduction and brood care, and young workers eclose in synchronized cohorts. We show that genes associated with division of labor in other social insects are conserved in C. biroi and dynamically regulated during the colony cycle. With unparalleled experimental control over an individual’s genotype and age, and the ability to induce reproduction and brood care, C. biroi has great potential to illuminate the molecular regulation of division of labor.社会性昆虫是研究社会演化与行为的重要模式生物。然而，对于多数物种而言，调控其劳动分工的关键因素（如基因型与年龄）的实验操控仍存在诸多局限。此外，多数社会性昆虫存在固定的蚁后与工蚁品级，这使得厘清生殖劳动分工——昆虫社会的核心特征——背后的分子机制间的因果关系变得极为困难。本研究报道了无蚁后克隆掠蚁（Cerapachys biroi）的基因组，这是一种不受上述局限影响的新型高效研究体系。本研究借助细胞学技术与RAD-seq技术，证实C. biroi通过中心融合型自融合方式繁殖，且杂合性丧失速率极慢。因此，同巢个体间的亲缘关系几乎达到克隆水平（亲缘系数r=0.996）。C. biroi蚁群中的工蚁会同步在繁殖与育幼行为间切换，且新生工蚁会同步羽化。本研究还发现，其他社会性昆虫中与劳动分工相关的基因在C. biroi中高度保守，且在蚁群周期中呈现动态表达调控。由于该体系可对个体基因型与年龄实现前所未有的实验操控，且能够诱导工蚁切换繁殖与育幼行为，因此C. biroi在解析劳动分工的分子调控机制方面具有巨大研究潜力。