The genome of the ant Tetramorium bicarinatum reveals a tandem organization of venom peptides genes allowing the prediction of their regulatory and evolutionary profiles.

Background: Venoms have evolved independently over a hundred times in the animal kingdom to deter predators and/or subdue prey. Venoms are cocktails of various secreted toxins, whose origin and diversification provide an appealing system for evolutionary researchers. Previous studies of the ant venom of Tetramorium bicarinatum revealed several Myrmicitoxin (MYRTX) peptides that gathered into seven precursor families suggesting different evolutionary origins. Analysis of the T. bicarinatum genome enabling further genomic approaches was necessary to understand the processes underlying the evolution of these myrmicitoxins.

Results: Here, we sequenced the genome of Tetramorium bicarinatum and reported the organisation of 44 venom peptide genes (vpg). Of the eleven chromosomes that make up the genome of T. bicarinatum, four carry the vpg which are organized in tandem repeats. This organisation together with the ML evolutionary analysis of vpg sequences, is consistent with evolution by local duplication of ancestral genes for each precursor family. The structure of the vpg into two or three exons is conserved after duplication events while the promoter regions are the least conserved parts of the vpg even for genes with highly identical sequences. This suggests that enhancer sequences were not involved in duplication events, but were recruited from surrounding regions. Expression level analysis revealed that most vpg are highly expressed in venom glands, although one gene or group of genes is much more highly expressed in each family. Finally, the examination of the genomic data revealed that several genes encoding transcription factors (TFs) are highly expressed in the venom glands. The search for binding sites (BS) of these TFs in the vpg promoters revealed hot spots of GATA sites in several vpg families.

Conclusion: In this pioneering investigation on ant venom genes, we provide a high-quality assembly genome and the annotation of venom peptide genes that we think can fosters further genomic research to understand the evolutionary history of ant venom biochemistry.