Abstract
The emergence of social organization (eusociality) is a major event in insect evolution. Although previous studies have investigated the mechanisms underlying caste differentiation and social behavior of eusocial insects including ants and honeybees, the molecular circuits governing sociality in these insects remain obscure. In this study, we profiled the transcriptome and chromatin accessibility of brain tissues in three Monomorium pharaonis ant castes: queens (including mature and un-mated queens), males and workers. We provide a comprehensive dataset including 16 RNA-sequencing and 16 assay for transposase accessible chromatin (ATAC)-sequencing profiles. We also demonstrate strong reproducibility of the datasets and have identified specific genes and open chromatin regions in the genome that may be associated with the social function of these castes. Our data will be a valuable resource for further studies of insect behaviour, particularly the role of brain in the control of eusociality.
Highlights
Background & SummaryEusocial insects have their societies based on caste polyphenism, where one or more queens are exclusively responsible for reproduction[1]
Genes differentially expressed across castes in the brains of insects contribute to social behavior development[5,6]
We noted that the assay for transposase accessible chromatin (ATAC)-sequencing samples presented a similar clustering result as RNA-sequencing, with the three female groups being closer to each other. These analyses demonstrated that our ATAC-sequencing datasets can reliably detect accessible regions in the genome and can be used to further explore the molecular foundation between epigenomic regulation and social behavior
Summary
Eusocial insects have their societies based on caste polyphenism, where one or more queens are exclusively responsible for reproduction[1]. Several studies have focused on the overlapping genes or pathways associated with the division of labor across different eusocial insect lineages and constructed a set of conserved gene regulatory networks[7,8] In this regard, one of the key hypotheses for evolution of eusociality emphasized the important role of a core toolkit of genes involved in highly conserved pathways, such as metabolism and reproduction[9,10]. Distinct DNA methylation patterns in queen and worker larvae have been reported in another eusocial insect, the termite Zootermopsis nevadensis[19] Taken together, these reports suggested crucial roles of transcription and epigenetics in shaping caste differentiation and controlling social behavior in insects. For the ATAC-sequencing, we obtained a total of 170 Gb high-quality base pairs reads, with approximately 106 million reads per sample
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