Journal
CURRENT BIOLOGY
Volume 24, Issue 22, Pages 2728-2732Publisher
CELL PRESS
DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2014.09.071
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Funding
- Fondation Herbette
- Swiss National Science Foundation [31003A-125306, 31003A-146641, 31003A-129894]
- BBSRC [BB/K004204/1] Funding Source: UKRI
- Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council [BB/K004204/1] Funding Source: researchfish
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Complex adaptive polymorphisms are common in nature, but what mechanisms maintain the underlying favorable allelic combinations [1-4]? The convergent evolution of polymorphic social organization in two independent ant species provides a great opportunity to investigate how genomes evolved under parallel selection. Here, we demonstrate that a large, nonrecombining social chromosome is associated with social organization in the Alpine silver ant, Formica selysi. This social chromosome shares architectural characteristics with that of the fire ant Solenopsis invicta [2], but the two show no detectable similarity in gene content. The discovery of convergence at two levels-the phenotype and the genetic architecture associated with alternative social forms-points at general genetic mechanisms underlying transitions in social organization. More broadly, our findings are consistent with recent theoretical studies suggesting that suppression of recombination plays a key role in facilitating coordinated shifts in coadapted traits [5, 6].
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