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 so...

社会性昆虫是研究社会演化与行为学的重要模式生物。然而，在多数物种中，对调控劳动分工的关键因素（如基因型与年龄）开展实验操控的手段仍较为有限。此外，多数物种具有固定的蚁后与工蚁品级，这使得难以确立生殖劳动分工——昆虫社会的标志性特征——背后的分子机制与该性状间的因果关系。本研究报道了无蚁后克隆劫掠蚁毕氏双节行军蚁（Cerapachys biroi）的基因组，这是一种不受上述限制的全新优良研究体系。本研究通过细胞学与限制性位点关联DNA测序（RAD-seq）技术证实，毕氏双节行军蚁通过中心融合型自配生殖，且杂合性丢失的速率极慢。因此，蚁群内的同伴几乎呈克隆相关（亲缘系数r = 0.996）。毕氏双节行军蚁的工蚁会同步在生殖与育幼行为间切换，且新生工蚁会同步批量羽化。本研究证实，在其他类群中与劳动分工相关的基因……