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: Epigenome; CpG site

The organized societies of ants include short-lived worker castes displaying specialized behavior and morphology long-lived queens dedicated to reproduction. We sequenced compared the genomes two socially divergent ant species: Camponotus floridanus Harpegnathos saltator. Both contained high amounts CpG, despite presence DNA methylation, which in non-Hymenoptera correlates with CpG depletion. Comparison gene expression different identified up-regulation telomerase sirtuin deacetylases longer-lived H. saltator reproductives, caste-specific microRNAs SMYD histone methyltransferases, differential regulation genes implicated neuronal function chemical communication. Our findings provide clues on molecular differences between these establish a new experimental model study epigenetics aging behavior.