Accelerated Evolution of Developmentally Biased Genes in the Tetraphenic Ant Cardiocondyla obscurior.

ABSTRACT: Plastic gene expression underlies phenotypic plasticity and plastically expressed genes evolve under different selection regimes compared with ubiquitously expressed genes. Social insects are well-suited models to elucidate the evolutionary dynamics of plastic genes for their genetically and environmentally induced discrete polymorphisms. Here, we study the evolution of plastically expressed genes in the ant Cardiocondyla obscurior-a species that produces two discrete male morphs in addition to the typical female polymorphism of workers and queens. Based on individual-level gene expression data from 28 early third instar larvae, we test whether the same evolutionary dynamics that pertain to plastically expressed genes in adults also pertain to genes with plastic expression during developme

SUBMITTER: Schrader L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5400372 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature