ArticleGenome biology2013
Transcriptome analyses of primitively eusocial wasps reveal novel insights into the evolution of sociality and the origin of alternative phenotypes.
Article in Genome biology, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 77 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
77 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 158 citations in OpenAlex.
- Meta-Analysis of Public RNA Sequencing Data Revealed Potential Key Genes Associated with Reproductive Division of Labor in Social Hymenoptera and Termites.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Pooled it
- Co-expression Gene Networks and Machine-learning Algorithms Unveil a Core Genetic Toolkit for Reproductive Division of Labour in Rudimentary Insect Societies.Genome biology and evolution · 2023Pooled it
- Genome Evolution in Social Insects.Genome biology and evolution · 2026Review
- Gene Expression and Alternative Splicing Regulate Phenotypic Plasticity of a Social Wasp.Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- Unmated Queens Show Worker-Like Behaviour and Gene Expression in Polygynous Colonies of the Ant Stigmatomma pallipes.Molecular ecology · 2026Article
- The eusocial non-code: Unveiling the impact of noncoding RNAs on Hymenoptera eusocial evolution.Non-coding RNA research · 2025Review
- Localized Tissue-Specific Gene Expression and Gene Duplications are Important Sources of Social Morph Differences in a Social Bumblebee.Molecular biology and evolution · 2025Article
- The diverse roles of insulin signaling in insect behavior.Frontiers in insect science · 2024Review
- Brain Gene Expression of Foraging Behavior and Social Environment in Ceratina calcarata.Genome biology and evolution · 2023Article
- Histone acetyltransferases and external demands influence task switching inBiology letters · 2023Article
- Molecular patterns and processes in evolving sociality: lessons from insects.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2023Review
- Convergent and complementary selection shaped gains and losses of eusociality in sweat bees.Nature ecology & evolution · 2023Article
- Social complexity, life-history and lineage influence the molecular basis of castes in vespid wasps.Nature communications · 2023Article
- Self-organization of plasticity and specialization in a primitively social insect.Cell systems · 2022Article
- Highly Contiguous Genome Assemblies of the Guinea Paper Wasp (Polistes exclamans) and Mischocyttarus mexicanus.Genome biology and evolution · 2022Article
- Social divergence: molecular pathways underlying castes and longevity in a facultatively eusocial small carpenter bee.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2022Article
- Kin selection for cooperation in natural bacterial populations.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2022Article
- Genomic and transcriptomic analyses of the subterranean termiteProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2022Article
- Diminishing returns drive altruists to help extended family.Nature ecology & evolution · 2021Article
- Novel brain gene-expression patterns are associated with a novel predaceous behaviour in tadpoles.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2021Article
17 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 5 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundUnderstanding how alternative phenotypes arise from the same genome is a major challenge in modern biology. Eusociality in insects requires the evolution of two alternative phenotypes - workers, who sacrifice personal reproduction, and queens, who realize that reproduction. Extensive work on honeybees and ants has revealed the molecular basis of derived queen and worker phenotypes in highly eusocial lineages, but we lack equivalent deep-level analyses of wasps and of primitively eusocial species, the latter of which can reveal how phenotypic decoupling first occurs in the early stages of eusocial evolution.
resultsWe sequenced 20 Gbp of transcriptomes derived from brains of different behavioral castes of the primitively eusocial tropical paper wasp Polistes canadensis. Surprisingly, 75% of the 2,442 genes differentially expressed between phenotypes were novel, having no significant homology with described sequences. Moreover, 90% of these novel genes were significantly upregulated in workers relative to queens. Differential expression of novel genes in the early stages of sociality may be important in facilitating the evolution of worker behavioral complexity in eusocial evolution. We also found surprisingly low correlation in the identity and direction of expression of differentially expressed genes across similar phenotypes in different social lineages, supporting the idea that social evolution in different lineages requires substantial de novo rewiring of molecular pathways.
conclusionsThese genomic resources for aculeate wasps and first transcriptome-wide insights into the origin of castes bring us closer to a more general understanding of eusocial evolution and how phenotypic diversity arises from the same genome.
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