Journal
SCIENCE
Volume 335, Issue 6064, Pages 79-82Publisher
AMER ASSOC ADVANCEMENT SCIENCE
DOI: 10.1126/science.1211451
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Funding
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council
- KLI
- NSF [0344946]
- Arizona Agricultural Experiment Station [ARZT 136321-H3106]
- Direct For Biological Sciences
- Division Of Integrative Organismal Systems [0344946] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
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Complex worker caste systems have contributed to the evolutionary success of advanced ant societies; however, little is known about the developmental processes underlying their origin and evolution. We combined hormonal manipulation, gene expression, and phylogenetic analyses with field observations to understand how novel worker subcastes evolve. We uncovered an ancestral developmental potential to produce a supersoldier subcaste that has been actualized at least two times independently in the hyperdiverse ant genus Pheidole. This potential has been retained and can be environmentally induced throughout the genus. Therefore, the retention and induction of this potential have facilitated the parallel evolution of supersoldiers through a process known as genetic accommodation. The recurrent induction of ancestral developmental potential may facilitate the adaptive and parallel evolution of phenotypes.
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