Gene expression variation in the brains of harvester ant foragers is associated with collective behavior

• Published in: Communications biology Vol. 3; no. 1; p. 100
• Main Authors: Friedman, Daniel Ari, York, Ryan Alexander, Hilliard, Austin Travis, Gordon, Deborah M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 05.03.2020; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 38/90; 38/91; 45/91; 631/158/2464; 631/181/735; 631/208/199; Amino acid sequence; Animal behavior; Animal reproduction; Animals; Ants - genetics; Ants - metabolism; Behavior, Animal; Biology; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Brain - metabolism; Breeding success; Colonies; Computational Biology; Dopamine; Dopamine - metabolism; Foraging behavior; Gene expression; Gene Expression Profiling; Gene Expression Regulation; Gene Regulatory Networks; Humidity; Insect Proteins - genetics; Insect Proteins - metabolism; Life Sciences; Natural selection; Pogonomyrmex barbatus; Ribonucleic acid; RNA; RNA-Seq; Selection, Genetic; Serotonin; Serotonin - metabolism; Social Behavior; Transcriptome; Variation
• ISSN: 2399-3642; 2399-3642
• DOI: 10.1038/s42003-020-0813-8

Natural selection on collective behavior acts on variation among colonies in behavior that is associated with reproductive success. In the red harvester ant ( Pogonomyrmex barbatus ), variation among colonies in the collective regulation of foraging in response to humidity is associated with colony reproductive success. We used RNA-seq to examine gene expression in the brains of foragers in a natural setting. We find that colonies differ in the expression of neurophysiologically-relevant genes in forager brains, and a fraction of these gene expression differences are associated with two colony traits: sensitivity of foraging activity to humidity, and forager brain dopamine to serotonin ratio. Loci that were correlated with colony behavioral differences were enriched in neurotransmitter receptor signaling & metabolic functions, tended to be more central to coexpression networks, and are evolving under higher protein-coding sequence constraint. Natural selection may shape colony foraging behavior through variation in gene expression. Friedman et al. examine gene expression in the brains of red harvester ant foragers. They show that colonies differ from each other in the expression of neurophysiologically-relevant genes, and that natural selection may shape colony foraging behavior by acting on this variation among colonies in gene expression.