Abstract
Some worker fire ants will tolerate multiple queens in their colony, but others only one. It turns out that this behaviour is governed by a gene cluster on an unusual pair of chromosomes. Two scientists describe what these findings mean to the fields of social evolution, genetics and beyond. See Letter p.664 The fire ant Solenopsis invicta can be found living in two very different types of colony: in some the workers tolerate multiple queens yet in others they tolerate just one. This divergence is in the genes, under the control of a single Mendelian factor. This study presents a large-scale analysis of the genomic region involved and, surprisingly, the various aspects of this polymorphism are found to be governed by a non-recombining supergene occupying half a chromosome. The operation of this region is remarkably similar to that of sex chromosomes. These findings demonstrate how limiting local genetic rearrangements can maintain divergent social behaviours that involve many genes acting together.
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