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GENE SEARCH. “The exact nature of the genetic step to the earliest degree of eusociality is still unknown, unlike the cases of winglessness and colony odor, but it is immediately accessible to genetic research. Hunt and Amdam (2005) have suggested that the genetic base of the flexible worker-versus-queen difference in Polistes paper wasps is the same as the genetically based developmental physiology that regulates diapause in solitary Hymenoptera.” https://lnkd.in/drgWvGT View in LinkedIn

WINGLESS WORKERS. “More than 110 million years ago, the earliest ants (or their immediate ancestors) altered the regulatory network of wing development in such a way that some of the genes could be shut down under the influence of diet or some other environmental factor. Thus was produced a wingless worker caste.” https://lnkd.in/drgWvGT View in LinkedIn

SELECTIVE FLIGHT. “As an overarching principle, the final step to eusociality can occur with the substitution of only one allele or a small set of alleles. Throughout the great diversity of living ant species, for example, the coexistence of winged reproductive females and wingless worker females is a basic trait of colonial life. Judging from the phylogenetically well-separated flies (order Diptera) and butterflies (order Lepidoptera), wing development is directed throughout the winged insects by an unchanged regulatory gene network.” https://lnkd.in/drgWvGT View in LinkedIn

INBREEDING. “A final force that could drive incipient colonies away from a high degree of relatedness during evolution might be the loss of genetic fitness by inbreeding. In communal associations of bees, group members occupy a single nest. They cooperate in brood care, but without surrendering their personal reproduction. This form of sociality, which occurs in all six of the taxonomic families of bees, could lead to eusociality by the subordination of some of the nest occupants, although no such shift has yet been documented.” https://lnkd.in/drgWvGT View in LinkedIn

GENE FIXATION. “In crossing the line to eusociality, a single allele that disposes daughters to stay could be fixed in the populations at large if the advantage of the little group over solitaires sufficiently outweighs the advantage of each worker leaving to try on its own.” https://lnkd.in/drgWvGT View in LinkedIn

DISEASE RESISTANCE. “As an alternative explanation, increased genetic diversity among workers might easily arise as a means of improving overall resistance to disease. Such a correlation between genetic diversity and disease resistance has been found in colonies of the leaf-cutter Acromyrmex echinatior in the control of a virulent soil fungus.” https://lnkd.in/drgWvGT View in LinkedIn

FRAGMENT FROM NATURE continues from last weekend and concludes this weekend on EO Wilson’s paper on eusocial insect evolution. The transition to eusociality is the concern of his thinking in this work, and he methodically traces the options and arguments. Here is a leading ant biologists deducting evolutionary history from the available facts, a beautiful piece. View in LinkedIn

GENETIC VARIABILITY. “Greater genetic variability in the workforce, and hence lower relatedness, can be favored by group selection. In the harvester ant Pogonomyrmex occidentalis, for example, colonies with greater genetic variation have overwhelmingly higher rates of growth and reproduction than those with less variation. This rise in fitness may be due to the enhancement of labor division by spreading tasks among workers with genetic predispositions to specialization.” https://lnkd.in/drgWvGT View in LinkedIn

This is almost all we need to know about our planet. " " https://lnkd.in/dSRsurj View in LinkedIn

TRANSITION MADE. “Passing the point of no return. The rerouting is programmed to remain part of the phenotypic plasticity of the alleles that prescribe the overall ground plan. This origin of an anatomically distinct worker caste appears to mark the “point of no return” in evolution, at which eusocial life becomes irreversible.” https://lnkd.in/drgWvGT View in LinkedIn