Genomic Comparison of the Ants Camponotus floridanus and Harpegnathos saltator

• DOI: 10.1126/science.1192428
• Publication Date: 2010-08-26T18:18:41Z
• Authors: Roberto Bonasio; Guojie Zhang; Chaoyang Ye; Navdeep S. Mutti; Xiaodong Fang; Nan Qin; Greg Donahue; Pengcheng Yang; Qiye Li; Cai Li; Pei Zhang; Zhiyong Huang; Shelley L. Berger; Danny Reinberg; Jun Wang; Jürgen Liebig
• Keywords: 0301 basic medicine; Aging; Genome; Behavior, Animal; Proteome; Ants; Group III Histone Deacetylases; Gene Expression Profiling; Molecular Sequence Data; Genes, Insect; DNA; Hydrocarbons; Epigenesis, Genetic; MicroRNAs; 03 medical and health sciences; Gene Expression Regulation; Animals; Insect Proteins; Amino Acid Sequence; Protein Methyltransferases; Dinucleoside Phosphates; Repetitive Sequences, Nucleic Acid

Ant Variation

Ants of the same genotype can exhibit numerous phenotypic forms and develop multiple functional castes within a colony.

Bonasio et al.

(p. 1068 ) sequenced the genomes of two ant species exhibiting differences in caste development— Camponotus floridanus and Harpegnathos saltator —and used the sequences to compare gene expression and identify differences in epigenetic gene regulation that lead to the phenotypic differences. Ants may offer a model system for studying the role of epigenetics in behavior and development.