An ancient and eroded supergene underlies social organization across Formica ants. Formica ants

We uncover 20-30 MY of evolutionary history of a supergene controlling polymorphic social organization in Formica ants. We show that five Formica species exhibit homologous divergent haplotypes, each associated with either single- or multiple- queen colonies, spanning 11 Mbp on chromosome 3. Despite the size of the supergene, only 142 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) consistently distinguish alternative supergene haplotypes across all five species. These conserved trans- species SNPs are localized in a small number of disjunct clusters that are distributed across the supergene.

我们揭示了蚁属（Formica）蚂蚁中调控多态社会结构的超基因（supergene）长达2000万至3000万年的演化历史。研究证实，5种蚁属蚂蚁携带有同源分化的单倍型，这些单倍型分别对应单蚁后群与多蚁后群，在3号染色体上的跨度达11兆碱基对（Mbp）。尽管该超基因区域规模庞大，但仅需142个单核苷酸多态性（single nucleotide polymorphisms, SNPs）即可稳定区分所有5个物种的不同超基因单倍型。这些保守的跨物种单核苷酸多态性集中分布于超基因区域内为数不多的几个分散簇中。