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- Title
Phylogenomics of palearctic <italic>Formica</italic> species suggests a single origin of temporary parasitism and gives insights to the evolutionary pathway toward slave-making behaviour.
- Authors
Romiguier, Jonathan; Rolland, Jonathan; Morandin, Claire; Keller, Laurent
- Abstract
Background: The ants of the <italic>Formica</italic> genus are classical model species in evolutionary biology. In particular, Darwin used Formica as model species to better understand the evolution of slave-making, a parasitic behaviour where workers of another species are stolen to exploit their workforce. In his book “On the Origin of Species” (1859), Darwin first hypothesized that slave-making behaviour in <italic>Formica</italic> evolved in incremental steps from a free-living ancestor. Methods: The absence of a well-resolved phylogenetic tree of the genus prevent an assessment of whether relationships among <italic>Formica</italic> subgenera are compatible with this scenario. In this study, we resolve the relationships among the 4 palearctic Formica subgenera (<italic>Formica str. s.</italic>, <italic>Coptoformica</italic>, <italic>Raptiformica</italic> and <italic>Serviformica</italic>) using a phylogenomic dataset of 945 genes for 16 species. Results: We provide a reference tree resolving the relationships among the main <italic>Formica</italic> subgenera with high bootstrap supports. Discussion: The branching order of our tree suggests that the free-living lifestyle is ancestral in the <italic>Formica</italic> genus and that parasitic colony founding could have evolved a single time, probably acting as a pre-adaptation to slave-making behaviour. Conclusion: This phylogenetic tree provides a solid backbone for future evolutionary studies in the <italic>Formica</italic> genus and slave-making behaviour.
- Subjects
FORMICA (Insects); PHYLOGENY; PARASITISM; INSECT evolution; DARWIN, Charles, 1809-1882
- Publication
BMC Evolutionary Biology, 2018, Vol 18, p1
- ISSN
1471-2148
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1186/s12862-018-1159-4