The evolutionary pathway and molecular mechanisms underpinning the evolution of social complexity in termites.

向超有机体的主要进化转变在社会性昆虫中发生了无数次。向超有机体的转变被认为是不可逆转的;决定一个物种是否已经转变的特征包括全能性的丧失和对生殖或帮助的一生的承诺。白蚁超有机体的最终进化解释还没有得到很好的理解;此外，进化变化发生的近似机制更是研究得不多。在这里，我们试图调查基因控制全能性和承诺跨家庭的白蚁。要做到这一点，我们将收集个体，这是全能的，并致力于终身不育，跨越多个物种跨越多个家庭的白蚁。然后，我们将对每个物种的转录组进行测序，以确定与全能性和承诺相关的共同转录模式。然后将进行RT-qPCR和RNAi实验以验证这些基因的功能：基因敲除预期允许先前定型的表型是可塑的，或者先前可塑的表型是不灵活的。通过阐明是否存在全能工人在某些家庭的白蚁是一个派生或原始状态，我们可以得出结论是否白蚁符合惠勒的假设，超有机体是不可逆的。

Major evolutionary transitions to superorganismality have occurred numerous times within social insects. The transition to superorganismality is thought to be irreversible; traits that determine whether a species has transitioned include the loss of totipotency and commitment to a life-time of either reproduction or helping. The ultimate evolutionary explanations for termite superorganismality aren't well understood; furthermore, the proximate mechanisms by which the evolutionary changes arise are even less well studied. Here, we seek to investigate the genes that control totipotency and commitment across families of termites. To do this we will collect individuals, which are totipotent and committed to lifetime sterility, across multiple species spanning multiple families of termites. We will then sequence the transcriptomes for each species to identify common patterns of transcription associated with totipotency and commitment. RT-qPCR and RNAi experiments will then be conducted to validate the functions of these genes: gene knockdowns are expected to either allow previously committed phenotypes to be plastic, or previously plastic phenotypes to be inflexible. By elucidating whether the presence of totipotent workers within some families of termites is a derived or primitive state, we can conclude whether termites conform to Wheeler's assumption that superorganismality is irreversible.