Abstract
Epistasis arising from physiological interactions between gene products often contributes to species differences, particularly those involved in reproductive isolation. In social organisms, phenotypes are influenced by the genotypes of multiple interacting individuals. In theory, social interactions can give rise to an additional type of epistasis between the genomes of social partners that can contribute to species differences. Using a full-factorial cross-fostering design with three species of closely related Temnothorax ants, I found that adult worker size was determined by an interaction between the genotypes of developing brood and care-giving workers, i.e. intergenomic epistasis. Such intergenomic social epistasis provides a strong signature of coevolution between social partners. These results demonstrate that just as physiologically interacting genes coevolve, diverge, and contribute to species differences, so do socially interacting genes. Coevolution and conflict between social partners, especially relatives such as parents and offspring, has long been recognized as having widespread evolutionary effects. This coevolutionary process may often result in coevolved socially-interacting gene complexes that contribute to species differences.
Highlights
Social interactions are ubiquitous and often strongly influence both fitness and trait expression [1,2,3]
While such intergenomic epistasis arising from social interactions has been little studied, theory suggests it may influence many of the same evolutionary processes as physiological epistasis [14,15,16,17]
There was an interaction between the species identity of brood and caregiving workers for new worker mass (brood species-by-worker species interaction, mixed model, F(4,105) = 3.19, P = 0.016); the size of T. ambiguus and T. curvispinosus individuals depended on which worker species reared them while the size of T. longispinosus individuals did not (Fig. 1)
Summary
Social interactions are ubiquitous and often strongly influence both fitness and trait expression [1,2,3]. When the effects of genes expressed in one individual depend on genes expressed in social partners, epistasis between the genomes of social partners results [14,15,16,17]. While such intergenomic epistasis arising from social interactions has been little studied, theory suggests it may influence many of the same evolutionary processes as physiological epistasis [14,15,16,17]
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