Social chromosome variants differentially affect queen determination and the survival of workers in the fire ant Solenopsis invicta.

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Type
Article: article from journal or magazin.
Collection
Publications
Institution
Title
Social chromosome variants differentially affect queen determination and the survival of workers in the fire ant Solenopsis invicta.
Journal
Molecular Ecology
Author(s)
Buechel S.D., Wurm Y., Keller L.
ISSN
1365-294X (Electronic)
ISSN-L
0962-1083
Publication state
Published
Issued date
2014
Peer-reviewed
Oui
Volume
23
Number
20
Pages
5117-5127
Language
english
Abstract
Intraspecific variation in social organization is common, yet the underlying causes are rarely known. An exception is the fire ant Solenopsis invicta in which the existence of two distinct forms of social colony organization is under the control of the two variants of a pair of social chromosomes, SB and Sb. Colonies containing exclusively SB/SB workers accept only one single queen and she must be SB/SB. By contrast, when colonies contain more than 10% of SB/Sb workers, they accept several queens but only SB/Sb queens. The variants of the social chromosome are associated with several additional important phenotypic differences, including the size, fecundity and dispersal strategies of queens, aggressiveness of workers, and sperm count in males. However, little is known about whether social chromosome variants affect fitness in other life stages. Here, we perform experiments to determine whether differential selection occurs during development and in adult workers. We find evidence that the Sb variant of the social chromosome increases the likelihood of female brood to develop into queens and that adult SB/Sb workers, the workers that cull SB/SB queens, are overrepresented in comparison to SB/SB workers. This demonstrates that supergenes such as the social chromosome can have complex effects on phenotypes at various stages of development.
Keywords
fire ants, Gp-9, ontogenetic selection, social chromosome, social evolution, Solenopsis invicta
Pubmed
Web of science
Open Access
Yes
Create date
15/09/2014 18:30
Last modification date
20/08/2019 13:23
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