Thefire ant ( Solenopsis invicta ), nicknamed “the invincible”, is famous for its painful sting and for causing invasive pests in countries like China and Australia. Their societies are characterized by the fact that some have hundreds of queens and others only one strictly. Now an investigation, led by the University of London (UK),has analyzed the genome of more than 500 of these insects and, according to their conclusions, the multiplicity or not of queens in this species is determined by the Gp-9 gene, considered a “supergene” as it is actually made up of more than 600 genes.
As explained to the SINC agency by biologist Yannick Wurm, co-author of the study that publishesNature on this matter, it is the first work that achievesidentify a “supergene” that conditions a certain social behavior. For this reason, researchers have called this sequence of genes a “social” chromosome. The GenGp-9 it contains two variants – which they have named B and b – that differ in their structure, but have evolved in a similar way to the X and Y chromosomes, which determine the sex of human beings. If the worker ants in a colony exclusively carry the B variant of the gene, they will accept a single queen. In contrast, a colony of worker ants that also carry the b variant will accept multiple queens with Bb chromosomes ,? explains Wurm.
Having more than one queen has significant advantages for fire ants. Scientists note that in colonies with multiple queensthere are more worker antsthan in those with only one “monarch”, “which makes the former a more successful social form.”
