Neofunctionalization in Ligand Binding Sites of Ant Olfactory Receptors.

ABSTRACT: Chemical communication is fundamental for the operation of insect societies. Their diverse vocabulary of chemical signals requires a correspondingly diverse set of chemosensory receptors. Insect olfactory receptors (ORs) are the largest family of chemosensory receptors. The OR family is characterized by frequent expansions of subfamilies, in which duplicated ORs may adapt to detect new signals through positive selection on their amino acid sequence. Ants are an extreme example with ∼400 ORs per genome-the highest number in insects. Presumably, this reflects an increased complexity of chemical communication. Here, we examined gene duplications and positive selection on ant ORs. We reconstructed the hymenopteran OR gene tree, including five ant species, and inferred positive selection along

SUBMITTER: Saad R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6161762 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature