Evidence map›Paper›PMID 41183133›Full record

ArticlePLoS biology2025

Genetic mapping in the red mason bee implicates ANTSR as an ancient sex-determining locus in bees and ants.

Tilman Rönneburg, Demetris Taliadoros, Anna Olsson, Sara Magnusson, Linn Huser, Muhammad Nafiz Ikhwan Bin Nor Fuad, Turid Everitt, Giselle C Martín-Hernández, Panagiotis Theodorou, Björn Cederberg and 3 more

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in PLoS biology, 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

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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. Deep evolutionary conservation of a sex-determining locus without sequence homology.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 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

13 authors.

Tilman RönneburgDepartment of Medical Microbiology and Biochemistry, SciLifeLab, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden.
Demetris TaliadorosDepartment of Medical Microbiology and Biochemistry, SciLifeLab, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden.
Anna OlssonDepartment of Medical Microbiology and Biochemistry, SciLifeLab, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden.
Sara MagnussonDepartment of Medical Microbiology and Biochemistry, SciLifeLab, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden.
Linn HuserDepartment of Medical Microbiology and Biochemistry, SciLifeLab, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden.
Muhammad Nafiz Ikhwan Bin Nor FuadDepartment of Medical Microbiology and Biochemistry, SciLifeLab, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden.
Turid EverittDepartment of Medical Microbiology and Biochemistry, SciLifeLab, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden.
Giselle C Martín-HernándezDepartment of Medical Microbiology and Biochemistry, SciLifeLab, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden.
Panagiotis TheodorouGeneral Zoology, Institute of Biology, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Halle (Saale), Germany.
Björn CederbergSwedish Species Information Centre, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, Sweden.
Robert J PaxtonGeneral Zoology, Institute of Biology, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Halle (Saale), Germany.
Karsten SeidelmannAnimal Physiology, Institute of Biology, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Halle (Saale), Germany.
Matthew T WebsterDepartment of Medical Microbiology and Biochemistry, SciLifeLab, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden.ORCID 0000-0003-1141-2863

Funding

Erik Philip-Sörensens Stiftelse (2020)
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Haplodiploid inheritance, in which females are diploid and males are haploid, is found in all species of Hymenoptera. Sex in haplodiploids is commonly determined by the alleles present at a complementary sex determination (CSD) locus, with heterozygosity triggering the female developmental pathway. The identity of this locus differs among taxa and is only known in a few species. Here, we map a single CSD locus to a 2 kbp region in the genome of the red mason bee Osmia bicornis. It overlaps the long noncoding RNA ANTSR, which has been identified as the sex-determining gene in the invasive ant Linepithema humile. This locus is homozygous in diploid males and exhibits extremely high levels of haplotype diversity, consistent with the action of frequency-dependent selection. The elevated levels of heterozygosity in the CSD locus enable us to fine-map potentially functional genetic variation within it. We also identify elevated levels of genetic diversity in the ortholog of the CSD locus in five other bee and ant genera, suggesting that it may govern sex determination widely in Hymenoptera. Our data are consistent with the hypothesis that ANTSR evolved a role in sex determination over 150 million years ago and is the ancestral sex-determination locus of bees and ants.

Indexed as

AntsRNA, Long NoncodingSex Determination ProcessesAnimalsBeesChromosome MappingFemaleGenetic LociGenetic VariationHaplotypesHeterozygoteMaleRNA, Long Noncoding

Identifiers

PMID41183133
PMCPMC12594375

What Socratic holds

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LicenceCC BY
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Registered trials

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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.