4.8 Article

The genome of the fire ant Solenopsis invicta

Publisher

NATL ACAD SCIENCES
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1009690108

Keywords

social insect; caste differences; nonmodel organism; de novo genome assembly

Funding

  1. European Union [FP6 036894]
  2. University of Lausanne
  3. Rectorate of the University of Lausanne
  4. ERC
  5. Herbette Foundation
  6. US Department of Agriculture Agriculture and Food Research Initiative Award [2009-35302-05301]
  7. Infectigen grant
  8. Academy of Finland [122210]
  9. National Science Foundation [DEB-0640690, MCB-0950896, DEB-1011349]
  10. Danish National Research Foundation
  11. Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine, Council of Agriculture, Executive Yuan, Taiwan [98AS-9.1.2BQ-B1(1)]
  12. Swiss National Science Foundation [315230B-131083]
  13. Picker Interdisciplinary Science Institute, Colgate University
  14. Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF) [315230B_131083] Funding Source: Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF)
  15. Direct For Biological Sciences
  16. Division Of Environmental Biology [1011349] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
  17. Direct For Biological Sciences
  18. Division Of Integrative Organismal Systems [1021723] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
  19. Div Of Molecular and Cellular Bioscience
  20. Direct For Biological Sciences [0950896] Funding Source: National Science Foundation

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Ants have evolved very complex societies and are key ecosystem members. Some ants, such as the fire ant Solenopsis invicta, are also major pests. Here, we present a draft genome of S. invicta, assembled from Roche 454 and Illumina sequencing reads obtained from a focal haploid male and his brothers. We used comparative genomic methods to obtain insight into the unique features of the S. invicta genome. For example, we found that this genome harbors four adjacent copies of vitellogenin. A phylogenetic analysis revealed that an ancestral vitellogenin gene first underwent a duplication that was followed by possibly independent duplications of each of the daughter vitellogenins. The vitellogenin genes have undergone subfunctionalization with queen-and worker-specific expression, possibly reflecting differential selection acting on the queen and worker castes. Additionally, we identified more than 400 putative olfactory receptors of which at least 297 are intact. This represents the largest repertoire reported so far in insects. S. invicta also harbors an expansion of a specific family of lipid-processing genes, two putative orthologs to the transformer/feminizer sex differentiation gene, a functional DNA methylation system, and a single putative telomerase ortholog. EST data indicate that this S. invicta telomerase ortholog has at least four spliceforms that differ in their use of two sets of mutually exclusive exons. Some of these and other unique aspects of the fire ant genome are likely linked to the complex social behavior of this species.

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