對兩個品種螞蟻的基因組的比較給了科學(xué)家們一些線索：究竟是什么決定了一只螞蟻的命運是成為工蟻還是蟻后,。 不同等級的螞蟻有著相同的基因藍圖，但它們會因為影響其基因表達的“表觀遺傳學(xué)”的變化而發(fā)育成為完全不同的個體,。 在佛羅里達弓背蟻（ Camponotus floridanus）的群體中，只有蟻后才會產(chǎn)下受精卵,；當(dāng)該蟻后死亡時,，該螞蟻的群體也隨之死亡。 該蟻群中的其它螞蟻或是主要工蟻或是次要工蟻,，它們有著不同的生理學(xué)和行為學(xué)差異,。 相反，在印度跳蟻(Harpegnathos saltator) 的群體中,，蟻后與工蟻的身體差別沒有那么明顯，而且在蟻后死亡時,，某個工蟻會進而成為蟻后,。 Roberto Bonasio以及一個國際性同事的團隊現(xiàn)在對這兩種螞蟻的基因組進行了測序。 他們對基因表達進行了比較并發(fā)現(xiàn)了可能與諸如RNA介導(dǎo)的信號轉(zhuǎn)導(dǎo)和甲基化等基因調(diào)節(jié)的表觀變化有關(guān)的差異,。 本文的作者說,，這一研究除了對造成這兩種螞蟻的不同等級間存在分子差異的原因提供了線索之外，它還建立了一個研究衰老和行為的表觀遺傳學(xué)的新的實驗?zāi)Ｐ?。（生物谷Bioon.com）
生物谷推薦原文出處：
Science DOI: 10.1126/science.1192428
Genomic Comparison of the Ants Camponotus floridanus and Harpegnathos saltator
Roberto Bonasio,1,* Guojie Zhang,2,3,* Chaoyang Ye,4,* Navdeep S. Mutti,5,* Xiaodong Fang,3,* Nan Qin,3,* Greg Donahue,4 Pengcheng Yang,3 Qiye Li,3 Cai Li,3 Pei Zhang,3 Zhiyong Huang,3 Shelley L. Berger,4, Danny Reinberg,1,6, Jun Wang,3,7, Jürgen Liebig5,
The organized societies of ants include short-lived worker castes displaying specialized behavior and morphology and long-lived queens dedicated to reproduction. We sequenced and compared the genomes of two socially divergent ant species: Camponotus floridanus and Harpegnathos saltator. Both genomes contained high amounts of CpG, despite the presence of DNA methylation, which in non-Hymenoptera correlates with CpG depletion. Comparison of gene expression in different castes identified up-regulation of telomerase and sirtuin deacetylases in longer-lived H. saltator reproductives, caste-specific expression of microRNAs and SMYD histone methyltransferases, and differential regulation of genes implicated in neuronal function and chemical communication. Our findings provide clues on the molecular differences between castes in these two ants and establish a new experimental model to study epigenetics in aging and behavior.
1 Department of Biochemistry, New York University School of Medicine, 522 First Avenue, New York, NY 10016, USA.
2 Chinese Academy of Sciences–Max Planck Junior Research Group, State Key Laboratory of Genetic Resources and Evolution, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, Yunnan 650223, China.
3 Beijing Genomics Institute–Shenzhen, Shenzhen 518083, China.
4 Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.
5 School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287, USA.
6 Howard Hughes Medical Institute, New York University Medical School, New York, NY 10016, USA.
7 Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen DK-2200, Denmark.
