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Timecourse of gene expression after oprhaning of virgin Solenopsis invicta fire ant queens

ABSTRACT: 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.

ORGANISM(S): Solenopsis invicta

PROVIDER: GSE19721 | GEO | 2010/02/01

SECONDARY ACCESSION(S): PRJNA121919

REPOSITORIES: GEO

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Project description:In many animals living in groups the reproductivestatus of individuals is determined by their social status. In specieswith social hierarchies, the death of dominant individuals typicallyupheaves the social hierarchy and provides an opportunity for subordinateindividuals to improve their social status. Such a phenomenon occursin the monogyne form of the fire ant\emph{, Solenopsis invicta, }wherecolonies typically contain a single wingless reproductive queen, thousandsof workers and hundreds of winged non-reproductive virgin queens.Upon the death of the mother queen, many virgin queens shed theirwings and initiate reproductive development instead of departing ona mating flight. Workers progressively execute almost all of themover the following weeks. The workers base their collective decisionon pheromonal cues associated with the onset of reproductive developmentof the virgin queens which occurs after orphaning. To examine the factors that determine which virgin queens are executed and which survive, we set up artificial competitions between queens from different colonies. Using microarrays, we found that queens from winning colonies showed higher mitochondrial as well as organ development activities 24 hours after orphaning than did queens from colonies that lost the competitions. Furthermore, queens from colonies where queens shed their wings faster after orphaning were more likely to survive competitions. Finally, higher wing shedding speed is linked to higher mitochondrial activity. Eight competitions were initially conducted between queens form pairs of colonies. Six competitions clearly identified one winning colony and one losing colony. We thus have microarray data for six competitions (ie biological replicates), with one winning and one losing colony within each competition. Thus 12 colonies total. For each colony, RNA extracted from five queens was pooled, and hybridized against an unrelated common reference RNA that had been made from a pool of many S. invicta individuals of all castes and developmental stages. Lab work was conducted in blocks (by competition) with randomized order within competition to avoid introducing bias. No technical replication was performed.

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Timecourse of gene expression after oprhaning of virgin Solenopsis invicta fire ant queens

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