ArticleScientific reports2018
Insects with similar social complexity show convergent patterns of adaptive molecular evolution.
Article in Scientific reports, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers.
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Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed, 32 citations in OpenAlex.
- The Evolution of Bees: Insights from 'Omic Studies.Genome biology and evolution · 2026Review
- Multi-Omic Analysis Reveals Population Differentiation and Signatures of Social Evolution in Tetragonula Stingless Bees.Molecular ecology · 2025Article
- The eusocial non-code: Unveiling the impact of noncoding RNAs on Hymenoptera eusocial evolution.Non-coding RNA research · 2025Review
- Exploring the genetics of social behaviour in C. calcarata.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Putting hornets on the genomic map.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Molecular patterns and processes in evolving sociality: lessons from insects.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2023Review
- Social complexity, life-history and lineage influence the molecular basis of castes in vespid wasps.Nature communications · 2023Article
- Genomic signatures of recent convergent transitions to social life in spiders.Nature communications · 2022Article
- Paper wasps form abstract concept of 'same and different'.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2022Article
- Haploid and Sexual Selection Shape the Rate of Evolution of Genes across the Honey Bee (Apis mellifera L.) Genome.Genome biology and evolution · 2022Article
- Thrice out of Asia and the adaptive radiation of the western honey bee.Science advances · 2021Article
- Next-Generation Sequencing and Its Impacts on Entomological Research in Ecology and Evolution.Neotropical entomology · 2021Review
- Sociality sculpts similar patterns of molecular evolution in two independently evolved lineages of eusocial bees.Communications biology · 2021Article
- Gene expression and epigenetics reveal species-specific mechanisms acting upon common molecular pathways in the evolution of task division in bees.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Eusociality influences the strength of negative selection on insect genomes.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2020Article
- Developmental plasticity shapes social traits and selection in a facultatively eusocial bee.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2020Article
- Social modularity: conserved genes and regulatory elements underlie caste-antecedent behavioural states in an incipiently social bee.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2019Article
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6 authors at 5 institutions in 4 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Eusociality has independently evolved multiple times in the hymenoptera, but the patterns of adaptive molecular evolution underlying the evolution and elaboration of eusociality remain uncertain. Here, we performed a population genomics study of primitively eusocial Polistes (paper wasps), and compared their patterns of molecular evolution to two social bees; Bombus (bumblebees), and Apis (honey bees). This species triad allowed us to study molecular evolution across a gradient of social complexity (Polistes < Bombus < Apis) and compare species pairs that have similar (i.e. Polistes and Bombus) or different (i.e. Polistes and Apis) life histories, while controlling for phylogenetic distance. We found that regulatory genes have high levels of positive selection in Polistes; consistent with the prediction that adaptive changes in gene regulation are important during early stages of social evolution. Polistes and Bombus exhibit greater similarity in patterns of adaptive evolution including greater overlap of genes experiencing positive selection, and greater positive selection on queen-biased genes. Our findings suggest that either adaptive evolution of a few key genes underlie the evolution of simpler forms of eusociality, or that the initial stages of social evolution lead to selection on a few key traits orchestrated by orthologous genes and networks.
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