| Title: | Transcriptomics and neuroanatomy of the clonal raider ant implicate an expanded clade of odorant receptors in chemical communication |
| Author(s): | McKenzie SK; Fetter-Pruneda I; Ruta V; Kronauer DJ; |
| Address: | "Laboratory of Social Evolution and Behavior, The Rockefeller University, New York, NY 10065; smckenzie@rockefeller.edu. Laboratory of Social Evolution and Behavior, The Rockefeller University, New York, NY 10065. Laboratory of Neurophysiology and Behavior, The Rockefeller University, New York, NY 10065" |
| ISSN/ISBN: | 1091-6490 (Electronic) 0027-8424 (Print) 0027-8424 (Linking) |
| Abstract: | "A major aim of sociogenomic research is to uncover common principles in the molecular evolution of sociality. This endeavor has been hampered by the small number of specific genes currently known to function in social behavior. Here we provide several lines of evidence suggesting that ants have evolved a large and novel clade of odorant receptor (OR) genes to perceive hydrocarbon-based pheromones, arguably the most important signals in ant communication. This genomic expansion is also mirrored in the ant brain via a corresponding expansion of a specific cluster of glomeruli in the antennal lobe. We show that in the clonal raider ant, hydrocarbon-sensitive basiconic sensilla are found only on the ventral surface of the female antennal club. Correspondingly, nearly all genes in a clade of 180 ORs within the 9-exon subfamily of ORs are expressed exclusively in females and are highly enriched in expression in the ventral half of the antennal club. Furthermore, we found that across species and sexes, the number of 9-exon ORs expressed in antennae is tightly correlated with the number of glomeruli in the antennal lobe region innervated by odorant receptor neurons from basiconic sensilla. Evolutionary analyses show that this clade underwent a striking gene expansion in the ancestors of all ants and slower but continued expansion in extant ant lineages. This evidence suggests that ants have evolved a large clade of genes to support pheromone perception and that gene duplications have played an important role in the molecular evolution of ant communication" |
| Keywords: | "*Animal Communication Animals Ants/anatomy & histology/*genetics/metabolism *Evolution, Molecular Female Gene Expression Profiling Male Receptors, Odorant/*genetics/metabolism Sensilla/*anatomy & histology/metabolism Formicidae antennal lobe chemosensatio;" |
| Notes: | "MedlineMcKenzie, Sean K Fetter-Pruneda, Ingrid Ruta, Vanessa Kronauer, Daniel J C eng DP2 GM105454/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ T32 GM066699/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't 2016/12/03 Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2016 Dec 6; 113(49):14091-14096. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1610800113. Epub 2016 Nov 22" |
