Evolution of social insect polyphenism facilitated by the sex differentiation cascade

Klein, Antonia; Schultner, Eva; Lowak, Helena; Schrader, Lukas; Heinze, J�rgen; Holman, Luke; Oettler, Jan

Abstract

The major transition to eusociality required the evolution of a switch to canalize development into either a reproductive or a helper, the nature of which is currently unknown. Following predictions from the ‘theory of facilitated variation’, we identify sex differentiation pathways as promising candidates because of their pre-adaptation to regulating development of complex phenotypes. We show that conserved core genes, including the juvenile hormone-sensitive master sex differentiation gene doublesex (dsx) and a krüppel homolog 2 (kr-h2) with putative regulatory function, exhibit both sex and morph-specific expression across life stages in the ant Cardiocondyla obscurior. We hypothesize that genes in the sex differentiation cascade evolved perception of alternative input signals for caste differentiation (i.e. environmental or genetic cues), and that their inherent switch-like and epistatic behavior facilitated signal transfer to downstream targets, thus allowing them to control differential development into morphological castes.

Citation

Klein, A., Schultner, E., Lowak, H., Schrader, L., Heinze, J., Holman, L., & Oettler, J. (2016). Evolution of social insect polyphenism facilitated by the sex differentiation cascade. PLOS Genetics, 12(3), e1005952. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1005952

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Mar 2, 2016
• Online Publication Date: Mar 31, 2016
• Publication Date: 2016
• Deposit Date: Feb 17, 2021
• Publicly Available Date: Feb 18, 2021
• Journal: PLOS Genetics
• Print ISSN: 1553-7390
• Publisher: Public Library of Science
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 12
• Issue: 3
• Pages: e1005952
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1005952
• Public URL: http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/Output/2722842