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A novel distribution of supergene genotypes is present in the socially polymorphic ant Formica neoclara

BACKGROUND: Supergenes are chromosomal regions with tightly linked clusters of alleles that control compound phenotypic traits. Supergenes have been demonstrated to contribute to the maintenance of polymorphisms within populations in traits as diverse as mimetic wing coloration in butterflies, matin...

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Autores principales: McGuire, Darin, Sankovitz, Madison, Purcell, Jessica
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9006578/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35418041
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12862-022-02001-0
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author McGuire, Darin
Sankovitz, Madison
Purcell, Jessica
author_facet McGuire, Darin
Sankovitz, Madison
Purcell, Jessica
author_sort McGuire, Darin
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Supergenes are chromosomal regions with tightly linked clusters of alleles that control compound phenotypic traits. Supergenes have been demonstrated to contribute to the maintenance of polymorphisms within populations in traits as diverse as mimetic wing coloration in butterflies, mating strategies in birds, and malarial susceptibility in mosquitoes. A large supergene also underlies variation in social organization in Formica ants. Alternative supergene haplotypes are associated with the presence of either a single queen (monogyny) or multiple queens (polygyny) within colonies. Here, we assess the social structure and supergene status of the North American species Formica neoclara. RESULTS: We sequenced a subset of the genome in 280 individuals sampled in populations from California to northern British Columbia using ddRADseq. We determined that F. neoclara is socially polymorphic in queen number, and we show that the social polymorphism is associated with alternative haplotypes at the social supergene. Intriguingly, polygyne colonies can harbor workers that are homozygous for both haplotypes as well as heterozygotes. CONCLUSIONS: This colony genetic composition contrasts with other Formica species, in which almost all individuals in polygyne colonies have the polygyne-associated haplotype. The social polymorphism is present in widely distributed and genetically subdivided populations of F. neoclara. In studying this system in F. neoclara, we expand our understanding of the functional evolution of supergene haplotypes as they diverge in different lineages. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12862-022-02001-0.
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spelling pubmed-90065782022-04-14 A novel distribution of supergene genotypes is present in the socially polymorphic ant Formica neoclara McGuire, Darin Sankovitz, Madison Purcell, Jessica BMC Ecol Evol Research BACKGROUND: Supergenes are chromosomal regions with tightly linked clusters of alleles that control compound phenotypic traits. Supergenes have been demonstrated to contribute to the maintenance of polymorphisms within populations in traits as diverse as mimetic wing coloration in butterflies, mating strategies in birds, and malarial susceptibility in mosquitoes. A large supergene also underlies variation in social organization in Formica ants. Alternative supergene haplotypes are associated with the presence of either a single queen (monogyny) or multiple queens (polygyny) within colonies. Here, we assess the social structure and supergene status of the North American species Formica neoclara. RESULTS: We sequenced a subset of the genome in 280 individuals sampled in populations from California to northern British Columbia using ddRADseq. We determined that F. neoclara is socially polymorphic in queen number, and we show that the social polymorphism is associated with alternative haplotypes at the social supergene. Intriguingly, polygyne colonies can harbor workers that are homozygous for both haplotypes as well as heterozygotes. CONCLUSIONS: This colony genetic composition contrasts with other Formica species, in which almost all individuals in polygyne colonies have the polygyne-associated haplotype. The social polymorphism is present in widely distributed and genetically subdivided populations of F. neoclara. In studying this system in F. neoclara, we expand our understanding of the functional evolution of supergene haplotypes as they diverge in different lineages. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12862-022-02001-0. BioMed Central 2022-04-13 /pmc/articles/PMC9006578/ /pubmed/35418041 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12862-022-02001-0 Text en © The Author(s) 2022 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) ) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.
spellingShingle Research
McGuire, Darin
Sankovitz, Madison
Purcell, Jessica
A novel distribution of supergene genotypes is present in the socially polymorphic ant Formica neoclara
title A novel distribution of supergene genotypes is present in the socially polymorphic ant Formica neoclara
title_full A novel distribution of supergene genotypes is present in the socially polymorphic ant Formica neoclara
title_fullStr A novel distribution of supergene genotypes is present in the socially polymorphic ant Formica neoclara
title_full_unstemmed A novel distribution of supergene genotypes is present in the socially polymorphic ant Formica neoclara
title_short A novel distribution of supergene genotypes is present in the socially polymorphic ant Formica neoclara
title_sort novel distribution of supergene genotypes is present in the socially polymorphic ant formica neoclara
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9006578/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35418041
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12862-022-02001-0
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