Molecular evolutionary analyses of insect societies.

نویسندگان

  • Brielle J Fischman
  • S Hollis Woodard
  • Gene E Robinson
چکیده

The social insects live in extraordinarily complex and cohesive societies, where many individuals sacrifice their personal reproduction to become helpers in the colony. Identifying adaptive molecular changes involved in eusocial evolution in insects is important for understanding the mechanisms underlying transitions from solitary to social living, as well as the maintenance and elaboration of social life. Here, we review recent advances made in this area of research in several insect groups: the ants, bees, wasps, and termites. Drawing from whole-genome comparisons, candidate gene approaches, and a genome-scale comparative analysis of protein-coding sequence, we highlight novel insights gained for five major biological processes: chemical signaling, brain development and function, immunity, reproduction, and metabolism and nutrition. Lastly, we make comparisons across these diverse approaches and social insect lineages and discuss potential common themes of eusocial evolution, as well as challenges and prospects for future research in the field.

برای دانلود رایگان متن کامل این مقاله و بیش از 32 میلیون مقاله دیگر ابتدا ثبت نام کنید

ثبت نام

اگر عضو سایت هستید لطفا وارد حساب کاربری خود شوید

منابع مشابه

An Organismal Perspective on the Evolution of Insect Societies

Insect societies, i.e., the colonies of eusocial ants, bees, wasps, and termites, have been likened to multicellular organisms for more than a century. This framework of “superorganisms” has to date largely been used as a mechanistic description of colony functioning, or as an example of an evolutionary transition in individuality. Here I take the superorganismal view a step further, and explor...

متن کامل

Deep evolutionary conservation of autism-related genes.

E. O. Wilson proposed in Sociobiology that similarities between human and animal societies reflect common mechanistic and evolutionary roots. When introduced in 1975, this controversial hypothesis was beyond science's ability to test. We used genomic analyses to determine whether superficial behavioral similarities in humans and the highly social honey bee reflect common molecular mechanisms. H...

متن کامل

Worker reproduction and policing in insect societies: an ESS analysis.

Insect societies are vulnerable to exploitation by workers who reproduce selfishly rather than help to rear the queen's offspring. In most species, however, only a small proportion of the workers reproduce. Here, we develop an evolutionarily stable strategy (ESS) model to investigate factors that could explain these observed low levels of reproductive exploitation. Two key factors are identifie...

متن کامل

Evolutionary study on two closed Gammarus (Crustacea, Amphipoda) species from Zagros Mountains (IRAN) using molecular methods

Mitochondrial Cytochrome Oxidase Subunit I DNA sequences are a good discriminative marker for phylogenetic studies in crustaceans and especially in amphipoda. In the present study, molecular and morphological data were analyzed to test whether Gammarus lobifer authority and Gammarus balutchi authority which one or two geographically separated but morphologically similar species. The analyses pr...

متن کامل

Evolutionary study on two closed Gammarus (Crustacea, Amphipoda) species from Zagros Mountains (IRAN) using molecular methods

Mitochondrial Cytochrome Oxidase Subunit I DNA sequences are a good discriminative marker for phylogenetic studies in crustaceans and especially in amphipoda. In the present study, molecular and morphological data were analyzed to test whether Gammarus lobifer authority and Gammarus balutchi authority which one or two geographically separated but morphologically similar species. The analyses pr...

متن کامل

ذخیره در منابع من


  با ذخیره ی این منبع در منابع من، دسترسی به آن را برای استفاده های بعدی آسان تر کنید

عنوان ژورنال:
  • Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

دوره 108 Suppl 2  شماره 

صفحات  -

تاریخ انتشار 2011