ArticleMolecular biology and evolution2022
Convergent Loss of Chemoreceptors across Independent Origins of Slave-Making in Ants.
Article in Molecular biology and evolution, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers.
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.
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.
Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 38 citations in OpenAlex.
- Adaptive evolution of odorant receptors is associated with elaborations of social organization in ants.Molecular biology and evolution · 2026Article
- Sequential origin of an alternative colony founding strategy driven by two supergenes in Temnothorax ants.Molecular biology and evolution · 2026Article
- Genomic Signatures of Selection Across Climate Gradients and a Geographic Mosaic of Coevolution in an Ant Social Parasite-Host System.Molecular biology and evolution · 2025Article
- Article
- Molecular Adjustment to a Social Niche: Brain Transcriptomes Reveal Divergent Influence of Social Environment on the Two Queen Morphs of the Ant Temnothorax rugatulus.Molecular ecology · 2025Article
- Ancestral complexity and constrained diversification of the ant olfactory system.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2025Article
- Genome assembly of the temporary socially parasitic spiny ant Polyrhachis lamellidens and its host Camponotus japonicus.DNA research : an international journal for rapid publication of reports on genes and genomes · 2025Article
- Gene expansion in the hawkmothiScience · 2024Article
- Task-specific odorant receptor expression in worker antennae indicates that sensory filters regulate division of labor in ants.Communications biology · 2023Article
- Putting hornets on the genomic map.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Genome assembly of the ectoparasitoid wasp Theocolax elegans.Scientific data · 2023Article
- Article
- The genomic basis of army ant chemosensory adaptations.Molecular ecology · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The evolution of an obligate parasitic lifestyle often leads to the reduction of morphological and physiological traits, which may be accompanied by loss of genes and functions. Slave-making ants are social parasites that exploit the work force of closely related ant species for social behaviors such as brood care and foraging. Recent divergence between these social parasites and their hosts enables comparative studies of gene family evolution. We sequenced the genomes of eight ant species, representing three independent origins of ant slavery. During the evolution of eusociality, chemoreceptor genes multiplied due to the importance of chemical communication in insect societies. We investigated the evolutionary fate of these chemoreceptors and found that slave-making ant genomes harbored only half as many gustatory receptors as their hosts', potentially mirroring the outsourcing of foraging tasks to host workers. In addition, parasites had fewer odorant receptors and their loss shows striking patterns of convergence across independent origins of parasitism, in particular in orthologs often implicated in sociality like the 9-exon odorant receptors. These convergent losses represent a rare case of convergent molecular evolution at the level of individual genes. Thus, evolution can operate in a way that is both repeatable and reversible when independent ant lineages lose important social traits during the transition to a parasitic lifestyle.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.