Darwin's "neuters" and the evolution of the sex continuum in a superorganism
Oettler, J.; Wallner, T.; Dofka, B.; Heinze, J.; Eichner, N.; Meister, G.; Errbii, M.; Rehli, M.; Gebhard, C.; Schultner, E.
Show abstract
Ant castes are an amazing example of phenotypic plasticity. In worker-destined embryos of the ant Cardiocondyla obscurior, the default female developmental trajectory is interrupted even before the gonadal precursor cells acquire a sexual identity. miRNA and mRNA expression in embryos reveal three distinct phenotypic entities: males, females, and "neuters", as Darwin coined the worker caste in "On the Origin of Species". Based on these results we propose that haplodiploidy, in conjunction with insect sex determination, allows for the expression of a third dimension on the sex continuum, thus facilitating the evolution of individuals which develop traits their parents do not have. One sentence summarySex and caste differentiation begin during the same embryonic developmental window in the ant Cardiocondyla obscurior.
Matching journals
The top 3 journals account for 50% of the predicted probability mass.
Similar papers in this journal
- The genetic basis for PRC1 complex diversity emerged early in animal evolution 95%
- Opportunistic binding of EcR to open chromatin drives tissue-specific developmental responses 95%
- The cyclic dinucleotide 2'3'-cGAMP induces a broad anti-bacterial and anti-viral response in the sea anemone Nematostella vectensis 95%
Similar papers in this journal
- Single-nucleus transcriptomics of wing sexual dimorphism and scale cell specialization in sulphur butterflies 95%
- Sequence heterochrony led to a gain of functionality in an immature stage of the central complex: a fly-beetle insight 94%
- Genetic and functional diversification of chemosensory pathway receptors in filarial nematode parasites 94%
Similar papers in this journal
- The chromatin-regulating CoREST complex is animal specific and essential for development in the cnidarian Nematostella vectensis 95%
- Sexual conflict drives micro- and macroevolution of sexual dimorphism in immunity 94%
- IbinA and IbinB regulate the Toll pathway-mediated immune response in Drosophila melanogaster 94%
Similar papers in this journal
"Similar papers" are the closest papers from that journal in the model's embedding space. They show what the match is built on, but the ranking comes mostly from a classifier over the whole training set, not from these examples alone.