Linked supergenes underlie split sex ratio and social organization in an ant
2021; National Academy of Sciences; Volume: 118; Issue: 46 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1073/pnas.2101427118
ISSN1091-6490
AutoresGerman Lagunas‐Robles, Jessica Purcell, Alan Brelsford,
Tópico(s)Animal Behavior and Reproduction
ResumoSignificance Some social insects exhibit split sex ratios, wherein a subset of colonies produce future queens and others produce males. This phenomenon spawned many influential theoretical studies and empirical tests, both of which have advanced our understanding of parent–offspring conflicts and the maintenance of cooperative breeding. However, previous studies assumed that split sex ratio was not under genetic control. Here, we show that split sex ratio is associated with a large genomic region in two ant species. The discovery that sex allocation can have a genetic basis provides an additional perspective on this well-studied trait of social insects.
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