The role of sex differentiation in social insect caste differentiation

社会生物学中一个备受关注的问题是，蚁后和工蚁是如何从相同的遗传结构中进化而来的。导致这些离散表型的发育轨迹包括输入信号（例如营养、等位基因状态）、介导激素（例如保幼激素、蜕皮激素）、介导途径（例如雷帕霉素的靶标、胰岛素/胰岛素样信号传导）和靶基因（例如核心发育基因）及其转录调节（例如转录因子、甲基化）的复杂网络。然而，这些因素如何相互作用在很大程度上尚不清楚。我们最近提出了一个基于相关观察的直观建议，即负责性别分化的高度保守的枢纽基因，如转录因子doublex（dsx）基因，在向真社会性和种姓多型性的重复进化过渡中发挥了关键作用（Klein et al.，2016）。研究两种转录因子dsx和kr-h2如何在社会性昆虫种姓分化中起作用，这两种转录因子都以其使用中间水平调节器将可变输入信号翻译成大的转录差异的能力而闻名。利用新出现的模式蚂蚁- obscurior基因组基金（2011-2015）基本上资助了我的hhhesion，并使我的CORE（Obscurior研究）小组（和Heinze实验室）的几条研究路线得以建立，即进化的新奇和快速适应（Schrader等人，2014年; Schrempf等人，2015）、共生（Klein等人，2015）、老化（Wyschetzki等人，2015; Oettler和Schrempf，2016; Wyschetzki等人，2016），工人大脑的3D模型，雄性附属腺中硒蛋白的发现和行为基因功能研究（Bressan等人，2014; Fuessl等人，2014; Oettler等人，2015）以及最后的表型可塑性的调节和进化（Schrader et al.，2015; Klein等人，2016年，Oettler等人提交（手稿包含在本提案中）。这项建议是进一步发展这一丰富信息来源的第一步。

A highly sought-after question in sociobiology is how queens and workers develop from the same genetic architecture. The developmental trajectories leading to these discrete phenotypes comprise a complex network of input signals (e.g. nutrition, allelic state), mediating hormones (e.g. juvenile hormone, ecdyson), mediating pathways (e.g. target of rapamycin, insulin/insulin-like signaling) and target genes (e.g. core development genes) and the transcriptional regulation thereof (e.g. transcription factors, methylation). How these interact however is largely unclear. We recently presented an intuitive proposal based on correlative observations that highly conserved hub genes responsible for sex differentiation such as the transcription factor doublesex (dsx) gene, played a crucial role in the repeated evolutionary transition to eusociality and caste polyphenism (Klein et al., 2016). studying how the two transcription factors dsx and kr-h2, both well-known for their ability to translate variable input signals into large transcription differences using intermediate-level regulators, act in social insect caste differentiation. Using the emerging model ant Cardiocondyla obscurior, this project aims to resolve the proximate molecular foundation of eusociality.The initial C. obscurior genome grant (2011-2015) basically funded my habilitation and enabled the establishment of several lines of research of my CORE (Cardiocondyla Obscurior REsearch) group (and in the Heinze lab), namely evolutionary novelty and rapid adaptation (Schrader et al., 2014; Schrempf et al., 2015), symbiosis (Klein et al., 2015), aging (Wyschetzki et al., 2015; Oettler and Schrempf, 2016; Wyschetzki et al., 2016), a 3D model of a worker brain, the finding of selenoproteins in male accessory glands and a behavioral gene function study (Bressan et al., 2014; Fuessl et al., 2014; Oettler et al., 2015) and lastly the regulation and evolution of phenotypic plasticity (Schrader et al., 2015; Klein et al., 2016, Oettler et al. submitted (manuscript included in this proposal)). This proposal represents the first step in further development of this rich source of information.