The Genome of the Clonal Raider Ant Cerapachys biroi

Abstract

Summary Social insects are important models for social evolution and behavior. However, in many species experimental control over important factors that regulate division of labor, such as genotype and age, is limited [1, 2]. Furthermore, most species have fixed queen and worker castes, making it difficult to establish causality between the molecular mechanisms that underlie reproductive division of labor, the hallmark of insect societies [3]. Here we present the genome of the queenless clonal raider ant Cerapachys biroi, a powerful new study system that does not suffer from these constraints. Using cytology and RAD-Seq, we show that C. biroi reproduces via automixis with central fusion and that heterozygosity is lost extremely slowly. As a consequence, nestmates are almost clonally related (r=0.996). Workers in C. biroi colonies synchronously alternate between reproduction and brood care, and young workers eclose in synchronized cohorts. We show that genes associated with division of labor in other social insects are conserved in C. biroi and dynamically regulated during the colony cycle. With unparalleled experimental control over an individual’s genotype and age, and the ability to induce reproduction and brood care [4, 5], C. biroi has great potential to illuminate the molecular regulation of division of labor.

Why do social insect queens live so long? Approaches to unravel the sociality-aging puzzle

“…recent review [15 ]). As of now, genomic resources comprise at least ten bees [5 ,16-18], more than ten ant genomes (reviewed in [19], most recent [20,21 ]), a few wasps [22,23] and two termite genomes [24 ,25,26 ], with many more upcoming (Elsner et al, in this issue). These advances help reveal the proximate genetic mechanisms underlying the fecundity/longevity trade-off and its remolding.…”

Transcriptomics and neuroanatomy of the clonal raider ant implicate an expanded clade of odorant receptors in chemical communication

“…These procedures and analyses are described in detail in SI Methods. New gene annotation followed Oxley et al (42) and new annotations are provided in Datasets S3 and S4. Phylogenetic analyses were conducted with RAxML (52), and birth and death rates were calculated by parsimoniously inferring birth and death events along reconciled gene and species trees using Notung (40).…”

Evolutionary history of the Azteca-like mariner transposons and their host ants

“…In addition, it has not been included on the Ant Genomes portal ; http:// hymenopteragenome.org/ant_genomes/). More recently, the genome of the ant Cerapachys biroi (Dorylinae) has also been sequenced (Oxley et al 2014), but the sequences are not yet available in the Ant Genomes Portal.…”