Caste-based differential transcriptional expression of hexamerins in response to a juvenile hormone analog in the red imported fire ant (Solenopsis invicta).

ABSTRACT: The reproductive ground plan hypothesis proposes that gene networks regulating foraging behavior and reproductive female physiology in social insects emerged from ancestral gene and endocrine factor networks. Expression of storage proteins such as vitellogenins and hexamerins is an example of this co-option. Hexamerins, through their role modulating juvenile hormone availability, are involved in caste determination in termites. The genome of the fire ant (Solenopsis invicta) encodes four hexamerin genes, hexamerin-like (LOC105192919, hereafter called hexamerin 1), hexamerin (LOC105204474, hereafter called hexamerin 2), arylphorin subunit alpha-like, and arylphorin subunit beta. In this study, a phylogenetic analysis of the S. invicta hexamerins determined that each predicted protein cluste

SUBMITTER: Hawkings C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6527210 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature