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Cryptic plasticity underlies a major evolutionary transition

journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-07, 19:54 authored by Jeremy Field, Robert J. Paxton, Antonella Soro, Catherine Bridge
The origin of eusociality is often regarded as a change of macroevolutionary proportions [[1] and [2]]. Its hallmark is a reproductive division of labor between the members of a society: some individuals (¿helpers¿ or ¿workers¿) forfeit their own reproduction to rear offspring of others (¿queens¿). In the Hymenoptera (ants, bees, wasps), there have been many transitions in both directions between solitary nesting and sociality [[2], [3], [4] and [5]]. How have such transitions occurred? One possibility is that multiple transitions represent repeated evolutionary gains and losses of the traits underpinning sociality. A second possibility, however, is that once sociality has evolved, subsequent transitions represent selection at just one or a small number of loci controlling developmental switches between preexisting alternative phenotypes [[2] and [6]]. We might then expect transitional populations that can express either sociality or solitary nesting, depending on environmental conditions. Here, we use field transplants to directly induce transitions in British and Irish populations of the sweat bee Halictus rubicundus. Individual variation in social phenotype was linked to time available for offspring production, and to the genetic benefits of sociality, suggesting that helping was not simply misplaced parental care [7]. We thereby demonstrate that sociality itself can be truly plastic in a hymenopteran.

History

Publication status

  • Published

Journal

Current Biology

ISSN

0960-9822

Publisher

Elsevier

Issue

22

Volume

20

Page range

2028-2031

Pages

4.0

Department affiliated with

  • Evolution, Behaviour and Environment Publications

Full text available

  • No

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2012-02-06

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