ArticleNature ecology & evolution2022
A single-cell transcriptomic atlas tracking the neural basis of division of labour in an ant superorganism.
Article in Nature ecology & evolution, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 21 papers.
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21 citing papers in PubMed, 0 citations in OpenAlex.
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- From the brain cell atlas to precision neurology: a review of the application of AI-driven multi-omics in brain science.GigaScience · 2026Review
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- A proton-gated channel identified in the centipede antenna.EMBO reports · 2025Article
- Genetic variation influences food-sharing sociability in honey bees.PLoS biology · 2025Article
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- Multi-Omics Analysis RevealsEcology and evolution · 2025Article
- Single-nucleus and spatial transcriptomics identify brain landscape of gene regulatory networks associated with behavioral maturation in honeybees.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Benchmarking cross-species single-cell RNA-seq data integration methods: towards a cell type tree of life.Nucleic acids research · 2025Article
- From Egg to Adult: A Developmental Table of the Ant Monomorium pharaonis.Journal of experimental zoology. Part B, Molecular and developmental evolution · 2024Article
- The brain atlas of a subsocial bee reflects that of eusocial Hymenoptera.Genes, brain, and behavior · 2024Article
- Juvenile hormone as a key regulator for asymmetric caste differentiation in ants.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024Article
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- Single-cell transcriptomics reveals the brain evolution of web-building spiders.Nature ecology & evolution · 2023Article
- Evolution at the cellular level.Nature ecology & evolution · 2023Article
- Identification of ecdysone receptor target genes in the worker honey bee brains during foraging behavior.Scientific reports · 2023Article
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29 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
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No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Ant colonies with permanent division of labour between castes and highly distinct roles of the sexes have been conceptualized to be superorganisms, but the cellular and molecular mechanisms that mediate caste/sex-specific behavioural specialization have remained obscure. Here we characterized the brain cell repertoire of queens, gynes (virgin queens), workers and males of Monomorium pharaonis by obtaining 206,367 single-nucleus transcriptomes. In contrast to Drosophila, the mushroom body Kenyon cells are abundant in ants and display a high diversity with most subtypes being enriched in worker brains, the evolutionarily derived caste. Male brains are as specialized as worker brains but with opposite trends in cell composition with higher abundances of all optic lobe neuronal subtypes, while the composition of gyne and queen brains remained generalized, reminiscent of solitary ancestors. Role differentiation from virgin gynes to inseminated queens induces abundance changes in roughly 35% of cell types, indicating active neurogenesis and/or programmed cell death during this transition. We also identified insemination-induced cell changes probably associated with the longevity and fecundity of the reproductive caste, including increases of ensheathing glia and a population of dopamine-regulated Dh31-expressing neurons. We conclude that permanent caste differentiation and extreme sex-differentiation induced major changes in the neural circuitry of ants.
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