On the Molecular Basis of Division of Labor in Solenopsis invicta (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) Workers: RNA-seq Analysis

Abstract The fire ant Solenopsis invicta Buren is an important invasive pest. Among S. invicta workers behavioral changes depend on age where younger ants are nurses and older ants foragers. To identify potential genes associated with this division of labor, we compared gene expression between forag...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of insect science (Tucson, Ariz.) Vol. 17; no. 2
Main Authors Qiu, Hua-Long, Zhao, Cheng-Yin, He, Yu-Rong
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States Oxford University Press 01.03.2017
Subjects
Age Factors
Animals
Ants - genetics
Ants - growth & development
Ants - physiology
Division of labor
Fire ants
Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental
Genes, Insect
Genetic aspects
Insect societies
Social Behavior
transcriptomics
eusociality
myrmecology
biological invasions
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Summary:Abstract The fire ant Solenopsis invicta Buren is an important invasive pest. Among S. invicta workers behavioral changes depend on age where younger ants are nurses and older ants foragers. To identify potential genes associated with this division of labor, we compared gene expression between foragers and nurses by high-throughput sequencing. In total, we identified 1,618 genes significantly differently expressed between nurses and foragers, of which 542 were upregulated in foragers and 1,076 were upregulated in nurses. Several pathways related to metabolism were significantly enriched, such as lipid storage and fatty acid biosynthesis, which might contribute to the division of labor in S. invicta. Several genes involved in DNA methylation, transcription, and olfactory responses as well as resistance to stress were differentially expressed between nurses and foragers workers. Finally, a comparison between previously published microarray data and our RNA-seq data in S. invicta shows 116 genes overlap, and the GO term myofibril assembly (GO: 0030239) were simultaneously significantly enriched. These results advance knowledge of potentially important genes and molecular pathways associated with worker division of labor in S. invicta. We hope our dataset will provide . candidate target genes to disrupt organization in S. invicta as a control strategy against this invasive pest
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These authors contributed equally to this work.
Subject Editor: Mario Muscedere
ISSN:1536-2442
1536-2442
DOI:10.1093/jisesa/iex002