ReviewPhilosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences2022
Iterative evolution of supergene-based social polymorphism in ants.
Review in Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 20 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
20 citing papers in PubMed.
- Developmental bias of body size and caste by the fire ant social supergene.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2026Article
- Sequential origin of an alternative colony founding strategy driven by two supergenes in Temnothorax ants.Molecular biology and evolution · 2026Article
- Sexes Are Polymorphisms: Describing and Understanding Sexual Diversity as Phenotypic Variation.Integrative and comparative biology · 2026Review
- Article
- A Novel Supergene Controls Queen Size and Colony Social Organization in the Ant Myrmica ruginodis.Molecular biology and evolution · 2025Article
- Large Inversion Polymorphisms are Widespread in North American Songbirds.Genome biology and evolution · 2025Article
- A Comprehensive Account of the Breeding Systems of the Fire AntEcology and evolution · 2025Article
- Supergene regulation of ant social organization: a P haplotype in workers shifts colony ontogeny towards multiple queens.Communications biology · 2025Article
- The Fire Ant Social Chromosome Exerts a Major Influence on Genome Regulation.Molecular biology and evolution · 2025Article
- Unexpected absence of a multiple-queen supergene haplotype from supercolonial populations of Formica ants.Journal of evolutionary biology · 2025Article
- Short-term evolutionary implications of an introgressed size-determining supergene in a vulnerable population.Nature communications · 2025Article
- A supergene-controlling social structure in Alpine ants also affects the dispersal ability and fecundity of each sex.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2024Article
- Social antagonism facilitates supergene expansion in ants.Current biology : CB · 2023Article
- A caste differentiation mutant elucidates the evolution of socially parasitic ants.Current biology : CB · 2023Article
- Chromosome study of the Hymenoptera (Insecta): from cytogenetics to cytogenomics.Comparative cytogenetics · 2023Review
- Genomic architecture of supergenes: connecting form and function.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2022Article
- Inversion invasions: when the genetic basis of local adaptation is concentrated within inversions in the face of gene flow.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2022Article
- Unbalanced selection: the challenge of maintaining a social polymorphism when a supergene is selfish.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2022Article
- Mutation accumulation opposes polymorphism: supergenes and the curious case of balanced lethals.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2022Article
- Genomic architecture and functional effects of potential human inversion supergenes.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2022Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Species commonly exhibit alternative morphs, with individual fate being determined during development by either genetic factors, environmental cues or a combination thereof. Ants offer an interesting case study because many species are polymorphic in their social structure. Some colonies contain one queen while others contain many queens. This variation in queen number is generally associated with a suite of phenotypic and life-history traits, including mode of colony founding, queen lifespan, queen-worker dimorphism and colony size. The basis of this social polymorphism has been studied in five ant lineages, and remarkably social morph seems to be determined by a supergene in all cases. These 'social supergenes' tend to be large, having formed through serial inversions, and to comprise hundreds of linked genes. They have persisted over long evolutionary timescales, in multiple lineages following speciation events, and have spread between closely related species via introgression. Their evolutionary dynamics are unusually complex, combining recessive lethality, spatially variable selection, selfish genetic elements and non-random mating. Here, we synthesize the five cases of supergene-based social polymorphism in ants, highlighting interesting commonalities, idiosyncrasies and implications for the evolution of polymorphisms in general. This article is part of the theme issue 'Genomic architecture of supergenes: causes and evolutionary consequences'.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What Socratic holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.