Evidence map›Paper›PMID 32811314›Full record

ArticleProceedings. Biological sciences2020

Eusociality influences the strength of negative selection on insect genomes.

Mohammad A Imrit, Kathleen A Dogantzis, Brock A Harpur, Amro Zayed

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Proceedings. Biological sciences, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
13citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

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.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

13 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Genome Evolution in Social Insects.Genome biology and evolution · 2026
    Review
  2. Review
  3. Article
  4. Article
  5. Article
  6. A phylogenetic approach to comparative genomics.Nature reviews. Genetics · 2025
    Review
  7. Article
  8. Pervasive relaxed selection in termite genomes.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2024
    Article
  9. Article
  10. Article
  11. Article
  12. Eusociality in snapping shrimps is associated with larger genomes and an accumulation of transposable elements.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2021
    Article
  13. Sociality and parasite transmission.Behavioral ecology and sociobiology · 2021
    Review
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors.

Mohammad A ImritDepartment of Biology, York University, 4700 Keele Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M3 J 1P3.
Kathleen A DogantzisDepartment of Biology, York University, 4700 Keele Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M3 J 1P3.
Brock A HarpurDepartment of Entomology, Purdue University, 901 W State Street, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA.
Amro ZayedDepartment of Biology, York University, 4700 Keele Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M3 J 1P3.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

While much of the focus of sociobiology concerns identifying genomic changes that influence social behaviour, we know little about the consequences of social behaviour on genome evolution. It has been hypothesized that social evolution can influence the strength of negative selection via two mechanisms. First, division of labour can influence the efficiency of negative selection in a caste-specific manner; indirect negative selection on worker traits is theoretically expected to be weaker than direct selection on queen traits. Second, increasing social complexity is expected to lead to relaxed negative selection because of its influence on effective population size. We tested these two hypotheses by estimating the strength of negative selection in honeybees, bumblebees, paper wasps, fire ants and six other insects that span the range of social complexity. We found no consistent evidence that negative selection was significantly stronger on queen-biased genes relative to worker-biased genes. However, we found strong evidence that increased social complexity reduced the efficiency of negative selection. Our study clearly illustrates how changes in behaviour can influence patterns of genome evolution by modulating the strength of natural selection.

Indexed as

Behavior, AnimalBiological EvolutionGenome, InsectSocial BehaviorAnimalsAntsBeesInsectaPhenotypeSelection, GeneticWaspsbehaviourcaste-biased gene expressionrelaxation of selectionsocial complexity

Identifiers

PMID32811314
PMCPMC7482261

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

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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.