
Figure 1 from Rehan & Toth: (A) Overview of phylogeny of aculeate Hymenoptera (with the nonhymenopteran but eusocial termites as an outgroup), highlighting independent origins of sociality (colored branches), groups with species ranging from solitary to primitively social (green), primitively social to advanced eusocial (orange), solitary to advanced eusocial (blue), and all species advanced eusocial (grey). (B) The full range of the solitary to eusocial spectrum (blue) and predictions of which genomic mechanisms are hypothesized to operate at different transitional stages of social evolution (broken arrows).
…gene networks related to reproductive and foraging behavior in solitary insects were coopted to regulate queen and worker behavior, respectively…
…posits that reproductive division of labor evolved via a reorganization of the timing of offspring-care gene expression…
…proposes that regulatory changes in specific genes, pathways, or networks with conserved roles across species are important in the evolution of novel phenotypes.
…our framework predicts that, early in social evolution, regulatory genomic changes, such as shifts in the timing and location of expression of conserved genes… are the primary drivers of social phenotypes.
…caste-specific genes, which now only need to function in one caste rather than two castes, might be freed from pleiotropic constraints. This could lead to stronger directional selection for changes in protein sequence related to elaboration of caste phenotypes…
…the transition from solitary to group life is associated with an increased capacity for gene regulation.
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