ArticlePloS one2012
The molecular clockwork of the fire ant Solenopsis invicta.
Article in PloS one, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 28 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
28 citing papers in PubMed, 58 citations in OpenAlex.
- The dealation pattern of independent and alate virgin females of Solenopsis invicta (Hymenoptera: Formicidae).Journal of insect science (Online) · 2025Article
- Parametric effects of light acting via multiple photoreceptors contribute to circadian entrainment inProceedings. Biological sciences · 2023Article
- Circadian Activity and Clock Genes inInsects · 2023Article
- Common Ground between Biological Rhythms and Forensics.Biology · 2022Review
- Time-course RNASeq of Camponotus floridanus forager and nurse ant brains indicate links between plasticity in the biological clock and behavioral division of labor.BMC genomics · 2022Article
- The Circadian Clock in Lepidoptera.Frontiers in physiology · 2021Review
- Effect of constant and fluctuating temperature on the circadian foraging rhythm of the red imported fire ant,Saudi journal of biological sciences · 2021Article
- The role of clockwork orange in the circadian clock of the cricket Gryllus bimaculatus.Zoological letters · 2020Article
- The nuclear and mitochondrial genomes of Frieseomelitta varia - a highly eusocial stingless bee (Meliponini) with a permanently sterile worker caste.BMC genomics · 2020Article
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- Periodicity, repression, and the molecular architecture of the mammalian circadian clock.The European journal of neuroscience · 2020Review
- Model and Non-model Insects in Chronobiology.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2020Review
- Sequences of Circadian Clock Proteins in the Nudibranch Molluscs Hermissenda crassicornis, Melibe leonina, and Tritonia diomedea.The Biological bulletin · 2018Article
- A novel photic entrainment mechanism for the circadian clock in an insect: involvement ofZoological letters · 2018Article
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- Fire ant social chromosomes: Differences in number, sequence and expression of odorant binding proteins.Evolution letters · 2017Article
- Genetic basis of allochronic differentiation in the fall armyworm.BMC evolutionary biology · 2017Article
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- Article
- Animal Cryptochromes: Divergent Roles in Light Perception, Circadian Timekeeping and Beyond.Photochemistry and photobiology · 2017Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 5 institutions in 5 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The circadian clock is a core molecular mechanism that allows organisms to anticipate daily environmental changes and adapt the timing of behaviors to maximize efficiency. In social insects, the ability to maintain the appropriate temporal order is thought to improve colony efficiency and fitness. We used the newly sequenced fire ant (Solenopsis invicta) genome to characterize the first ant circadian clock. Our results reveal that the fire ant clock is similar to the clock of the honeybee, a social insect with an independent evolutionary origin of sociality. Gene trees for the eight core clock genes, period, cycle, clock, cryptochrome-m, timeout, vrille, par domain protein 1 & clockwork orange, show ant species grouping closely with honeybees and Nasonia wasps as an outgroup to the social Hymenoptera. Expression patterns for these genes suggest that the ant clock functions similar to the honeybee clock, with period and cry-m mRNA levels increasing during the night and cycle and clockwork orange mRNAs cycling approximately anti-phase to period. Gene models for five of these genes also parallel honeybee models. In particular, the single ant cryptochrome is an ortholog of the mammalian-type (cry-m), rather than Drosophila-like protein (cry-d). Additionally, we find a conserved VPIFAL C-tail region in clockwork orange shared by insects but absent in vertebrates. Overall, our characterization of the ant clock demonstrates that two social insect lineages, ants and bees, share a similar, mammalian-like circadian clock. This study represents the first characterization of clock genes in an ant and is a key step towards understanding socially-regulated plasticity in circadian rhythms by facilitating comparative studies on the organization of circadian clockwork.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.