Maternal effect killing by a supergene controlling ant social organization.

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Serval ID
serval:BIB_98B845D6839C
Type
Article: article from journal or magazin.
Collection
Publications
Institution
Title
Maternal effect killing by a supergene controlling ant social organization.
Journal
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Author(s)
Avril Amaury, Purcell Jessica, Béniguel Sébastien, Chapuisat Michel
ISSN
1091-6490 (Electronic)
ISSN-L
0027-8424
Publication state
Published
Issued date
2020
Peer-reviewed
Oui
Volume
117
Number
29
Pages
17130-17134
Language
english
Notes
Publication types: Journal Article ; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Publication Status: ppublish
Abstract
Supergenes underlie striking polymorphisms in nature, yet the evolutionary mechanisms by which they arise and persist remain enigmatic. These clusters of linked loci can spread in populations because they captured coadapted alleles or by selfishly distorting the laws of Mendelian inheritance. Here, we show that the supergene haplotype associated with multiple-queen colonies in Alpine silver ants is a maternal effect killer. All eggs from heterozygous queens failed to hatch when they did not inherit this haplotype. Hence, the haplotype specific to multiple-queen colonies is a selfish genetic element that enhances its own transmission by causing developmental arrest of progeny that do not carry it. At the population level, such transmission ratio distortion favors the spread of multiple-queen colonies, to the detriment of the alternative haplotype associated with single-queen colonies. Hence, selfish gene drive by one haplotype will impact the evolutionary dynamics of alternative forms of colony social organization. This killer hidden in a social supergene shows that large nonrecombining genomic regions are prone to cause multifarious effects across levels of biological organization.
Keywords
maternal effect killer, queen number, selfish genetic elements, supergene, transmission ratio distortion
Pubmed
Web of science
Open Access
Yes
Create date
26/06/2020 15:31
Last modification date
21/11/2022 9:25
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