哥本哈根大学张国捷研究团队在研究中取得进展。他们的最新研究提出了适应性辐射与蚂蚁的社会进化。该项研究成果发表在2025年6月16日出版的《细胞》上。

蚂蚁起源于一亿五千万年前，经历了一个不可逆转的转变，变成了超级有机体的群体生活。163个蚂蚁基因组的比较分析，包括145个新生成的蚂蚁物种的全基因组序列，揭示了广泛的基因组重排与物种形成率相关。同时，保守的synsynblock富含参与基础代谢和种姓分化的共表达基因。与消化、内分泌信号、角质层碳氢化合物合成和化学接受相关的基因家族在蚂蚁祖先中扩大，而许多种姓相关的基因在蚁类祖先中进行了正选择。蜂王二态性和其他社会特征的细化和减少，在保守的信号传导和代谢途径中留下了强化或放松选择的趋同特征，表明核心基因集以多样化组织复杂性为主题。功能实验证实了以前未被描述的种姓发展的遗传调控因子。本研究重建了社会特征的遗传基础及其在塑造种姓表型的基因调控网络中的整合。

附：英文原文

Title: Adaptive radiation and social evolution of the ants

Author: Joel Vizueta, Zijun Xiong, Guo Ding, Rasmus S. Larsen, Hao Ran, Qionghua Gao, Josefin Stiller, Wei Dai, Wei Jiang, Jie Zhao, Chunxue Guo, Xiafang Zhang, Dashuang Zuo, Wenjiang Zhong, Morten Schitt, Chengyuan Liu, Hailin Zhang, Xueqin Dai, Ignasi Andreu, Yue Shi, Sandra Tretter, Ding He, Shubham Gautam, Zelin Li, Glenn Hickey, Aniek B.F. Ivens, Marie-Pierre Meurville, Francisco Hita-Garcia, Jamie M. Kass, Benoit Guénard, Corrie Moreau, Benedict Paten, Adria C. LeBoeuf, Evan P. Economo, Michel Chapuisat, Jonathan Z. Shik, Philip S. Ward, Jürgen Heinze, Ted R. Schultz, Qiye Li, Robert R. Dunn, Nathan J. Sanders, Weiwei Liu, Lukas Schrader, Jacobus J. Boomsma, Guojie Zhang

Issue&Volume: 2025-06-16

Abstract: Ants originated over 150 million years ago through an irreversible transition to superorganismal colony life. Comparative analyses of 163 ant genomes, including newly generated whole-genome sequences of 145 ant species, reveal extensive genome rearrangements correlated with speciation rates. Meanwhile, conserved syntenic blocks are enriched with co-expressed genes involved in basal metabolism and caste differentiation. Gene families related to digestion, endocrine signaling, cuticular hydrocarbon synthesis, and chemoreception expanded in the ant ancestor, while many caste-associated genes underwent positive selection in the formicoid ancestor. Elaborations and reductions of queen-worker dimorphism and other social traits left convergent signatures of intensified or relaxed selection in conserved signaling and metabolic pathways, suggesting that a core gene set was used to diversify organizational complexity. Previously uncharacterized genetic regulators of caste development were confirmed by functional experiments. This study reconstructs the genetic underpinning of social traits and their integration within gene-regulatory networks shaping caste phenotypes.

DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2025.05.030

Source: https://www.cell.com/cell/abstract/S0092-8674(25)00617-8