Adaptive radiation and social evolution of the ants
Ants originated over 150 million years ago through an irreversible transition to superorganismal colony life. Comparative analyses of 163 ant genomes, including newly generated whole-genome sequences of 145 ant species, reveal extensive genome rearrangements correlated with speciation rates. Meanwhile, conserved syntenic blocks are enriched with co-expressed genes involved in basal metabolism and caste differentiation. Gene families related to digestion, endocrine signaling, cuticular hydrocarbon synthesis, and chemoreception expanded in the ant ancestor, while many caste-associated genes underwent positive selection in the formicoid ancestor. Elaborations and reductions of queen-worker dimorphism and other social traits left convergent signatures of intensified or relaxed selection in conserved signaling and metabolic pathways, suggesting that a core gene set was used to diversify organizational complexity. Previously uncharacterized genetic regulators of caste development were confirmed by functional experiments. This study reconstructs the genetic underpinning of social traits and their integration within gene-regulatory networks shaping caste phenotypes.
Authors
- Morten Schiøtt (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4309-8090)
- Joel Vizueta (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0139-3013)
- Jonathan Z. Shik (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3309-7737)
- Wei Dai (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1650-1590)
- Adria C. LeBoeuf (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2931-1510)
- Guo Ding (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6145-6138)
- Evan P. Economo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7402-0432)
- Jie Zhao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5403-9865)
- Robert R. Dunn (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6030-4837)
- Benoît Guénard (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7144-1175)
- Josefin Stiller (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6009-9581)
- Chengyuan Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8690-8698)
- Sandra Tretter
- Xueqin Dai (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6022-8064)
- Zijun Xiong (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3923-0703)
- Jacobus J. Boomsma (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3598-1609)
- Qiye Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5993-0312)
- Ding He (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0440-5676)
- Qionghua Gao
- Lukas Schrader (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9863-0526)
- Francisco Hita Garcia (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4709-3083)
- Wei Jiang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1049-7239)
- Aniek B. F. Ivens (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4924-8966)
- Guojie Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6860-1521)
- Ted R. Schultz (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6244-7233)
- Benedict Paten (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8863-3539)
- Xiafang Zhang
- Jamie M. Kass (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9432-895X)
- Dashuang Zuo
- Wenjiang Zhong
- Nathan J. Sanders (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6220-6731)
- Shubham Gautam (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1812-0874)
- Weiwei Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1302-0209)
- Glenn Hickey (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2280-9404)
- Chunxue Guo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5709-0009)
- Hao Ran (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4837-504X)
- Rasmus Larsen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8507-0523)
- Philip S. Ward (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9019-0383)
- Marie-Pierre Meurville (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6767-063X)
- Jürgen Heınze (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9403-5946)
- Michel Chapuisat (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7207-199X)
- Corrie S. Moreau (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1139-5792)
- Hailin Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8757-9905)
- Zelin Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0790-3064)
- Yue Shi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7014-6035)
- Ignasi Andreu
Institutions
- BGI Group (China) (CN)
- Smithsonian Institution (US)
- University of Copenhagen (DK)
- Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (PA)
- Museum für Naturkunde (DE)
- National Museum of Natural History (US)
- North Carolina State University (US)
- Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (JP)
- Guangxi University (CN)
- University of Fribourg (CH)
- Guangxi Minzu University (CN)
- Kunming Institute of Zoology (CN)
- University of California, Santa Cruz (US)
- Cornell University (US)
- University of Münster (DE)
- University of Cambridge (GB)
- University of Michigan (US)
- Novo Nordisk Foundation (DK)
- Institute for Biodiversity (DE)
- Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology (DE)
- Women's Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University (CN)
- BGI Research (CN)
- University of Regensburg (DE)
- University of Maryland, College Park (US)
- University of California, Davis (US)
- Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (NL)
- University of Hong Kong (HK)
- Technical University of Denmark (DK)
- University of Lausanne (CH)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Cell
- Published
- 2025-06-16
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2025.05.030
- Citations
- 32
- Primary Topic
- Insect and Arachnid Ecology and Behavior
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 58.15
Funders
- Villum Fonden
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- HORIZON EUROPE European Research Council