Year: 2013
Type: article
Abstract: BACKGROUND: Taxa that harbor natural phenotypic variation are ideal for ecological genomic approaches aimed at understanding how the interplay between genetic and environmental factors can lead to the evolution of complex traits. Lasioglossum albipes is a polymorphic halictid bee that expresses variation in social behavior among populations, and common-garden experiments have suggested that this variation is likely to have a genetic component. RESULTS: We present the L. albipes genome assembly to characterize the genetic and ecological factors associated with the evolution of social behavior. The de novo assembly is comparable to other published social insect genomes, with an N50 scaffold length of 602 kb. Gene families unique to L. albipes are associated with integrin-mediated signaling and DNA-binding domains, and several appear to be expanded in this species, including the glutathione-s-transferases and the inositol monophosphatases. L. albipes has an intact DNA methylation system, and in silico analyses suggest that methylation occurs primarily in exons. Comparisons to other insect genomes indicate that genes associated with metabolism and nucleotide binding undergo accelerated evolution in the halictid lineage. Whole-genome resequencing data from one solitary and one social L. albipes female identify six genes that appear to be rapidly diverging between social forms, including a putative odorant receptor and a cuticular protein. CONCLUSIONS: L. albipes represents a novel genetic model system for understanding the evolution of social behavior. It represents the first published genome sequence of a primitively social insect, thereby facilitating comparative genomic studies across the Hymenoptera as a whole.
Source: Genome biology
Institutions: Harvard University, Kunming Institute of Zoology, China National GeneBank, State Key Laboratory of Genetic Resources and Evolution, University of Copenhagen, Natural History Museum of Denmark, Georgia Institute of Technology, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park
Language: English
Subfield: Genetics
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $5,490
Funders: National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Agriculture, John Templeton Foundation, University of East Anglia, National Natural Science Foundation of China, Chinese Academy of Sciences, State Key Laboratory of Genetic Resources and Evolution, National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Division of Integrative Organismal Systems
OpenAlex ID: W2149591029