Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40351059›Full record

ArticleJournal of experimental zoology. Part B, Molecular and developmental evolution2025

Embryogenesis in Myrmicine Ants Combines Features of Short Germ-Band Development With a Progressive Mode of Segmentation.

Chi-Chun Fang, Arjuna Rajakumar, Andrew Kenny, Ulrich G Mueller, Ehab Abouheif, David Stein

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Journal of experimental zoology. Part B, Molecular and developmental evolution, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

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.

2 · The registry

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

  1. Progressive Cellularization of Blastoderm and Extraembryonic Tissue Formation in the Ant Camponotus floridanus.Journal of experimental zoology. Part B, Molecular and developmental evolution · 2026
    Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

6 authors.

Chi-Chun FangDepartment of Integrative Biology, The University of Texas at Austin, Texas, USA.
Arjuna RajakumarDepartment of Biology, McGill University, Quebec, Canada.
Andrew KennyDepartment of Molecular Biosciences, The University of Texas at Austin, Texas, USA.
Ulrich G MuellerDepartment of Integrative Biology, The University of Texas at Austin, Texas, USA.
Ehab AbouheifDepartment of Biology, McGill University, Quebec, Canada.
David SteinDepartment of Molecular Biosciences, The University of Texas at Austin, Texas, USA.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5586-2244

Funding

The study was funded by a Texas Ecolab award and a UT Austin Global Research Fellowship to CCF, the National Science Foundation award DEB-1354666 to UGM, and the W.M. Wheeler Lost Pines Endowment from the University of Texas at Austin. This workstudy was also supported by a Discovery Grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC, RGPIN-2020-05175) to Ehab Abouheif and a doctoral fellowship from FRQNT (Quebec) to Arjuna Rajakumar.
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Ants exhibit complex social organization, morphologically and functionally distinct castes, and the exploitation of diverse ecological niches. How these features have influenced embryonic development relative to other insects remains unclear. Insect embryogenesis has been classified into three modes: In long germ-band development, exemplified by the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, segments along the entire anterior-posterior axis of the embryonic primordium are established almost simultaneously, before gastrulation, with the initial embryonic primordium surrounding almost the entire volume of the egg. In short and intermediate germ-band modes, the embryonic primordium occupies a smaller proportion of the egg surface, with anterior segments initially specified, and remaining segments being added sequentially from a posterior growth zone. Here, we examine embryogenesis in three myrmicine ants, the fungus-gardening ants Atta texana and Mycocepurus smithii, and the red imported fire ant Solenopsis invicta. We find that these ant embryos combine features of short germ-band development with a newly characterized progressive pattern of segmentation that has been associated with some long germ-band-developing insects. Despite similarities in the size of ant and Drosophila eggs, embryogenesis in the three ant species is 10- to 20-fold longer than in Drosophila and is also significantly longer than in two other hymenopteran species that have been studied, the honeybee Apis mellifera and the jewel wasp Nasonia vitripennis. Moreover, the embryos produced by A. texana foundress queens develop to first instar larvae 25% faster than embryos produced by mature queens. We discuss these results in the context of the eusocial lifestyle of ants.

Indexed as

AntsBody PatterningEmbryonic DevelopmentAnimalsEmbryo, NonmammalianFemale

Identifiers

PMID40351059
PMCPMC12277563

What Socratic holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY-NC-ND
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

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.