Effects of ploidy and sex-locus genotype on gene expression patterns in the fire ant Solenopsis invicta
Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT:
ORGANISM(S): Solenopsis invicta
SUBMITTER: Mingkwan Nipitwattanaphon
PROVIDER: E-GEOD-42786 | biostudies-arrayexpress |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-arrayexpress
Similar Datasets
Project description:In Hymenoptera, sex is determined by a single-locus complementary sex determining system (sl-CSD). Males are normally haploid (hemizygous at the sl-CSD locus) but if the genotype of the sl-CSD locus is homozygous, they develop into diploid males. Here, we study the effects of ploidy and the sl-CSD-locus genotype by comparing gene expression differences between haploid males, diploid males and virgin queens at three developmental stages, pupae, 1 day and 11 days after eclosion. Keywords: diploid males, sl-CSD, ploidy-spcific gene, sex-specific gene, doublesex, sex-biased gene Six-condition experiment: haploid male pupae, diploid male pupae, queen pupae, 1-day-old haploid male adults, 1-day-old diploid male adults, 1-day-old queen adults (accession number GSM1031732 - GSM1031734, GSM1031737 - GSM1031738, GSM1031740 - GSM1031742, GSM1031745 - GSM1031746; reprocessed for this study), 11-day-old haploid male adults, 11-day-old diploid male adults, 11-day-old queen adults (accession number GSM1031748 - GSM1031750, GSM1031753 - GSM1031754, GSM1031756 - GSM1031758, GSM1031761 - GSM1031762; reprocessed for this study). Biological replicates: 5 colonies (x 2 genotypes for each colony). Samples were labeled with Cy3 and were compared to the same common reference RNA labeled with Cy5.
2012-12-06 | E-GEOD-42494 | biostudies-arrayexpress
Project description:In Hymenoptera, sex is determined by a single-locus complementary sex determining system (sl-CSD). Males are normally haploid (hemizygous at the sl-CSD locus) but if the genotype of the sl-CSD locus is homozygous, they develop into diploid males. Here, we study the effects of ploidy and the sl-CSD-locus genotype by comparing gene expression differences between haploid males, diploid males and virgin queens at three developmental stages, pupae, 1 day and 11 days after eclosion. Keywords: diploid males, sl-CSD, ploidy-spcific gene, sex-specific gene, doublesex, sex-biased gene Six-condition experiment: haploid male pupae, diploid male pupae, queen pupae, 1-day-old haploid male adults, 1-day-old diploid male adults, 1-day-old queen adults (accession number GSM1031732 - GSM1031734, GSM1031737 - GSM1031738, GSM1031740 - GSM1031742, GSM1031745 - GSM1031746; reprocessed for this study), 11-day-old haploid male adults, 11-day-old diploid male adults, 11-day-old queen adults (accession number GSM1031748 - GSM1031750, GSM1031753 - GSM1031754, GSM1031756 - GSM1031758, GSM1031761 - GSM1031762; reprocessed for this study). Biological replicates: 5 colonies (x 2 genotypes for each colony). Samples were labeled with Cy3 and were compared to the same common reference RNA labeled with Cy5.
2012-12-06 | E-GEOD-42785 | biostudies-arrayexpress
Project description:In Hymenoptera, sex is determined by a single-locus complementary sex determining system (sl-CSD). Males are normally haploid (hemizygous at the sl-CSD locus) but if the genotype of the sl-CSD locus is homozygous, they develop into diploid males. Here, we study the effects of ploidy and the sl-CSD-locus genotype by comparing gene expression differences between haploid males, diploid males and virgin queens at three developmental stages, pupae, 1 day and 11 days after eclosion. Keywords: diploid males, sl-CSD, ploidy-spcific gene, sex-specific gene, doublesex, sex-biased gene Six-condition experiment: haploid male pupae, diploid male pupae, queen pupae, 1-day-old haploid male adults, 1-day-old diploid male adults, 1-day-old queen adults (accession number GSM1031732 - GSM1031734, GSM1031737 - GSM1031738, GSM1031740 - GSM1031742, GSM1031745 - GSM1031746; reprocessed for this study), 11-day-old haploid male adults, 11-day-old diploid male adults, 11-day-old queen adults (accession number GSM1031748 - GSM1031750, GSM1031753 - GSM1031754, GSM1031756 - GSM1031758, GSM1031761 - GSM1031762; reprocessed for this study). Biological replicates: 5 colonies (x 2 genotypes for each colony). Samples were labeled with Cy3 and were compared to the same common reference RNA labeled with Cy5.
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2008-06-06 | E-GEOD-11694 | biostudies-arrayexpress
Project description:In the fire ant Solenopsis invicta, a colony queen number is determined by the founding queen's genotypes at the 13 Mb supergene with the non-recombining variants SB and Sb. Single-queen colonies are always headed by SB/SB queens while multiple-queens colonies are always headed by SB/Sb queens. The two variants of the supergene, SB and Sb are completely linked to the two alleles (B and b) of the gene Gp-9. SB/SB and SB/Sb queens differ in many physiological traits including their maturation rate and odor. To explain why SB/SB and SB/Sb queens have different odors, and why SB/SB virgins mature faster and accumulate more fat, we measured expression of ~6000 genes in virgin queens 1 and 11 days after eclosion and in reproductive queens. Keywords: fire ants, Solenopsis invicta, Supergene, queen, Gp-9, social form, maturation, fat storage, queen odor, cuticular hydrocarbon, worker discrimination, monogyne, polygyne, transposon, chemical signaling Six-condition experiment: 1-day-old SB/SB virgins, 1-day-old SB/Sb virgins, 11-day-old SB/SB virgins, 11-day-old SB/Sb virgins, SB/SB reproductive queens, SB/Sb reproductive queens. Biological replicates: 8 for 1-day-old SB/SB virgins and 1-day-old SB/Sb virgins that were collected in 2008; 8 for 1-day-old SB/SB virgins, 1-day-old SB/Sb virgins that were collected in 2009; 7 for 11-day-old SB/SB virgins and 11-day-old SB/Sb virgins that were collected in 2008; 8 for 11-day-old SB/SB virgins and 11-day-old SB/Sb virgins that were collected in 2009; 8 for SB/SB and SB/Sb reproductive queens (only collected in 2009). Samples were labeled with Cy3 and were compared to the same common reference RNA labeled with Cy5. Samples from 2008 were hybridized on the microarrays batch I and samples from 2009 were hybridized on the microarrays batch J.
2012-11-07 | E-GEOD-42062 | biostudies-arrayexpress
Project description:In species with social hierarchies, the death of dominant individuals typically upheaves the social hierarchy and provides an opportunity for subordinate individuals to become reproductives. Such a phenomenon occurs in the monogyne form of the fire ant, Solenopsis invicta, where colonies typically contain a single wingless reproductive queen, thousands of workers and hundreds of winged non-reproductive virgin queens. Upon the death of the mother queen, many virgin queens shed their wings and initiate reproductive development instead of departing on a mating flight. Workers progressively execute almost all of them over the following weeks. To identify the molecular changes that occur in virgin queens as they perceive the loss of their mother queen and begin to compete for reproductive dominance, we collected virgin queens before the loss of their mother queen, six hours after orphaning and 24 hours after orphaning. Their RNA was extracted and hybridized against microarrays to examine the expression levels of approximately 10,000 genes. We identified 297 genes that were consistently differentially expressed after orphaning. These include genes that are putatively involved in the signaling and onset of reproductive development, as well as genes underlying major physiological changes in the young queens. 3 samples: 0h, 6h, 24; five queens pooled per samples; each replicate loop of 3 samples was taken from an independent colony; 8 biological replicates (colonies) used. Hybridization according to a Dye-balanced loop design (no technical replication)
2010-01-31 | E-GEOD-19721 | biostudies-arrayexpress
Project description:Ants have evolved very complex societies and are key ecosystem members. Some ants, such as the fire ant Solenopsis invicta, are also major pests. Here, we present a draft genome of S. invicta, assembled from Roche 454 and Illumina sequencing reads obtained from a focal haploid male and his brothers. We used comparative genomic methods to obtain insight into the unique features of the S. invicta genome. For example, we found that this genome harbors four adjacent copies of vitellogenin. A phylogenetic analysis revealed that an ancestral vitellogenin gene first underwent a duplication that was followed by possibly independent duplications of each of the daughter vitellogenins. The vitellogenin genes have undergone subfunctionalization with queen- and worker-specific expression, possibly reflecting differential selection acting on the queen and worker castes. Additionally, we identified more than 400 putative olfactory receptors of which at least 297 are intact. This represents the largest repertoire reported so far in insects. S. invicta also harbors an expansion of a specific family of lipid-processing genes, two putative orthologs to the transformer/feminizer sex differentiation gene, a functional DNA methylation system, and a single putative telomerase ortholog. EST data indicate that this S. invicta telomerase ortholog has at least four spliceforms that differ in their use of two sets of mutually exclusive exons. Some of these and other unique aspects of the fire ant genome are likely linked to the complex social behavior of this species.
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2013-03-27 | GSE39959 | GEO
Project description:The circadian clock is a core molecular mechanism that allows organisms to anticipate daily environmental changes and adapt the timing of behaviors to maximize efficiency. In social insects, the ability to maintain the appropriate temporal order is thought to improve colony efficiency and fitness. We used the newly sequenced fire ant (Solenopsis invicta) genome to characterize the first ant circadian clock. Our results reveal that the fire ant clock is similar to the clock of the honeybee, a social insect with an independent evolutionary origin of sociality. Gene trees for the eight core clock genes, period, cycle, clock, cryptochrome-m, timeout, vrille, par domain protein 1 & clockwork orange, show ant species grouping closely with honeybees and Nasonia wasps as an outgroup to the social Hymenoptera. Expression patterns for these genes suggest that the ant clock functions similar to the honeybee clock, with period and cry-m mRNA levels increasing during the night and cycle and clockwork orange mRNAs cycling approximately anti-phase to period. Gene models for five of these genes also parallel honeybee models. In particular, the single ant cryptochrome is an ortholog of the mammalian-type (cry-m), rather than Drosophila-like protein (cry-d). Additionally, we find a conserved VPIFAL C-tail region in clockwork orange shared by insects but absent in vertebrates. Overall, our characterization of the ant clock demonstrates that two social insect lineages, ants and bees, share a similar, mammalian-like circadian clock. This study represents the first characterization of clock genes in an ant and is a key step towards understanding socially-regulated plasticity in circadian rhythms by facilitating comparative studies on the organization of circadian clockwork.
| S-EPMC3496728 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Males in many animal species differ greatly from females in morphology, physiology and behaviour. Ants, bees and wasps have a haplodiploid mechanism of sex determination whereby unfertilized eggs become males while fertilized eggs become females. However, many species also have a low frequency of diploid males, which are thought to develop from diploid eggs when individuals are homozygous at one or more sex determination loci. Diploid males are morphologically similar to haploids, though often larger and typically sterile. To determine how ploidy level and sex-locus genotype affect gene expression during development, we compared expression patterns between diploid males, haploid males and females (queens) at three developmental timepoints in Solenopsis invicta. In pupae, gene expression profiles of diploid males were very different from those of haploid males but nearly identical to those of queens. An unexpected shift in expression patterns emerged soon after adult eclosion, with diploid male patterns diverging from those of queens to resemble those of haploid males, a pattern retained in older adults. The finding that ploidy level effects on early gene expression override sex effects (including genes implicated in sperm production and pheromone production/perception) may explain diploid male sterility and lack of worker discrimination against them during development.
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