Jumping Genes Fueled Ant Diversification After Asteroid Impact
- Ants survived a global mass extinction 66 million years ago by harnessing jumping genes in their DNA, according to new research published in Science Advances.
- The new study also connected jumping genes to the expansion of gene families responsible for chemical communication.
Ants survived a global mass extinction 66 million years ago by harnessing jumping genes in their DNA, according to new research published in Science Advances. An international team of scientists led by Lukas Schrader from the Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity at the University of Munster, Germany, analyzed the genomes of 163 ant species from 12 of the 16 living subfamilies to reconstruct the evolutionary history of these social insects over the past 100 million years.
The genomic analysis revealed that ant lineages carrying the highest volume of transposable elements today are also the most species-rich. Researchers identified independent bursts of jumping gene activity in the ancestors of the largest ant groups in the early Palaeogene, around 66 million years ago, just before those lineages diversified into thousands of modern species.
The asteroid impact had dramatic consequences for the environment, according to Schrader. Researchers found the genomic mechanism that connects those ecological upheavals to the subsequent rapid diversification of the ants: transposable elements, Schrader said. Similar bursts of jumping gene activity have been documented in other animal groups during phases of increased speciation, including in bats.
Jumping Genes Expanded Chemical Communication in Ants
The new study also connected jumping genes to the expansion of gene families responsible for chemical communication. This chemical signaling remains essential to the social life of ants, which find their way, recognize nestmates, and coordinate colonies almost exclusively by smell. Scientists think this capacity to recognize and interpret chemical signals may have been enhanced by the activity of their genomes.
Ants represent the most species-rich family among social insects, boasting more than 15,000 species worldwide. While they originated between 140 million and 168 million years ago, they did not rise to ecological dominance until the asteroid ended the age of dinosaurs.