Project Details
Projekt
Comparative and experimental approaches to the transcriptomics and genomic regulation of eusociality in the sweat bees
Applicant
Antonella Soro, Ph.D.
Subject Area
Evolution, Anthropology
Term
since 2022
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 503229828
Eusociality is a major evolutionary innovation that has independently evolved several times across the insects. Using one lineage of sweat bee (Hymenoptera: Halictini) in which eusociality has arisen once, been elaborated upon and subsequently lost repeatedly, we propose to investigate variation in gene expression and its regulation associated with the gain and subsequent loss of eusociality. Through a cross-species comparison of the expression profiles and genome-wide chromatin accessibility of ancestrally solitary, eusocial and derived solitary species, we aim to reveal those genetic and regulatory changes that are associated with the gain, elaboration and loss of sociality using RNA-seq and ATAC-seq approaches. These analyses will be strengthened by investigation of a facultative social species in a common-garden experiment to test proposed regulatory mechanisms underpinning the expression of sociality. Our previous analyses have provided candidate loci for in-depth analysis of gene expression and its regulation in response to social environment. Through a comprehensive analysis spanning changes in gene expression and its regulation through to phenotype, we aim to highlight functional transcriptomic and genomic changes that may have driven sociality in this plastic lineage of bees. Through sequence analyses of differentially expressed genes, we will also investigate how caste-conditional gene expression influences expected patterns of protein evolutionary rates, thereby contributing to an understanding of the influence of eusociality on genome evolution.
DFG Programme
Priority Programmes
Co-Investigator
Professor Dr. Robert Paxton
