AI Article Synopsis
- Sexual fate in certain wasps, bees, and ants is influenced by the alleles present at a specific gene locus known as the complementary sex-determiner, which can impact population dynamics.
- Researchers found that the genes responsible for feminization and the complementary sex-determiner also exist in bumble bees and ants, suggesting they are not exclusive to honeybees.
- The study indicates that the evolution of these genes happened around 120 million years ago and they have evolved together, promoting the idea that the complementary sex-determiner is crucial for sex determination across the entire Hymenoptera order.
Article Abstract
In several Hymenoptera, sexual fate is determined by the allelic composition at the complementary sex-determiner locus, a sex-determination mechanism that can strongly affect population dynamics. To date, the molecular identification of complementary sex determiner has only been achieved in the honeybee, where the complementary sex-determiner gene was reported to have arisen from duplication of the feminizer gene. Strikingly, the complementary sex-determiner gene was also proposed to be unique to the honeybee lineage. Here we identify feminizer and complementary sex-determiner orthologues in bumble bees and ants. We further demonstrate that the duplication of feminizer that produced complementary sex determiner occurred before the divergence of Aculeata species (~120 Myr ago). Finally, we provide evidence that the two genes evolved concertedly through gene conversion, complementary sex-determiner evolution being additionally shaped by mosaic patterns of selection. Thus, the complementary sex-determiner gene likely represents the molecular basis for single locus-complementary sex determination in the Aculeata infra-order, and possibly, in the entire Hymenoptera order.
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| http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3621418 | PMC |
| http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms1898 | DOI Listing |
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