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Conserved Genes Underlie Phenotypic Plasticity in an Incipiently Social Bee

Despite a strong history of theoretical work on the mechanisms of social evolution, relatively little is known of the molecular genetic changes that accompany transitions from solitary to eusocial forms. Here, we provide the first genome of an incipiently social bee that shows both solitary and soci...

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Autores principales: Rehan, Sandra M, Glastad, Karl M, Steffen, Michael A, Fay, Cameron R, Hunt, Brendan G, Toth, Amy L
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Oxford University Press 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6190964/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30247544
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evy212
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author Rehan, Sandra M
Glastad, Karl M
Steffen, Michael A
Fay, Cameron R
Hunt, Brendan G
Toth, Amy L
author_facet Rehan, Sandra M
Glastad, Karl M
Steffen, Michael A
Fay, Cameron R
Hunt, Brendan G
Toth, Amy L
author_sort Rehan, Sandra M
collection PubMed
description Despite a strong history of theoretical work on the mechanisms of social evolution, relatively little is known of the molecular genetic changes that accompany transitions from solitary to eusocial forms. Here, we provide the first genome of an incipiently social bee that shows both solitary and social colony organization in sympatry, the Australian carpenter bee Ceratina australensis. Through comparative analysis, we provide support for the role of conserved genes and cis-regulation of gene expression in the phenotypic plasticity observed in nest-sharing, a rudimentary form of sociality. Additionally, we find that these conserved genes are associated with caste differences in advanced eusocial species, suggesting these types of mechanisms could pave the molecular pathway from solitary to eusocial living. Genes associated with social nesting in this species show signatures of being deeply conserved, in contrast to previous studies in other bees showing novel and faster-evolving genes are associated with derived sociality. Our data provide support for the idea that the earliest social transitions are driven by changes in gene regulation of deeply conserved genes.
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spelling pubmed-61909642018-10-22 Conserved Genes Underlie Phenotypic Plasticity in an Incipiently Social Bee Rehan, Sandra M Glastad, Karl M Steffen, Michael A Fay, Cameron R Hunt, Brendan G Toth, Amy L Genome Biol Evol Research Article Despite a strong history of theoretical work on the mechanisms of social evolution, relatively little is known of the molecular genetic changes that accompany transitions from solitary to eusocial forms. Here, we provide the first genome of an incipiently social bee that shows both solitary and social colony organization in sympatry, the Australian carpenter bee Ceratina australensis. Through comparative analysis, we provide support for the role of conserved genes and cis-regulation of gene expression in the phenotypic plasticity observed in nest-sharing, a rudimentary form of sociality. Additionally, we find that these conserved genes are associated with caste differences in advanced eusocial species, suggesting these types of mechanisms could pave the molecular pathway from solitary to eusocial living. Genes associated with social nesting in this species show signatures of being deeply conserved, in contrast to previous studies in other bees showing novel and faster-evolving genes are associated with derived sociality. Our data provide support for the idea that the earliest social transitions are driven by changes in gene regulation of deeply conserved genes. Oxford University Press 2018-09-22 /pmc/articles/PMC6190964/ /pubmed/30247544 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evy212 Text en © The Author(s) 2018. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Rehan, Sandra M
Glastad, Karl M
Steffen, Michael A
Fay, Cameron R
Hunt, Brendan G
Toth, Amy L
Conserved Genes Underlie Phenotypic Plasticity in an Incipiently Social Bee
title Conserved Genes Underlie Phenotypic Plasticity in an Incipiently Social Bee
title_full Conserved Genes Underlie Phenotypic Plasticity in an Incipiently Social Bee
title_fullStr Conserved Genes Underlie Phenotypic Plasticity in an Incipiently Social Bee
title_full_unstemmed Conserved Genes Underlie Phenotypic Plasticity in an Incipiently Social Bee
title_short Conserved Genes Underlie Phenotypic Plasticity in an Incipiently Social Bee
title_sort conserved genes underlie phenotypic plasticity in an incipiently social bee
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6190964/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30247544
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evy212
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