DNA fusion in fire ants, known as a supergene, controls the complex social structure within colonies and determines whether one queen or several queens rule the ants, a new study revealed. According to the study's researcher Yannick Wurm of Queen Mary, University of London, the DNA fusion is the first "social chromosome" to be discovered.
In a statement released on Wednesday, Wurm said, "This was a very surprising discovery. Similar differences in chromosomal structure are linked to wing patterns in butterflies and to cancer in humans, but this is the first supergene ever identified that determines social behavior."
According to the Agence France Presse, red fire ants are native to South America and are organized into two separate social structures-the first with a single queen and the other with several, even hundreds, or queens in one colony. The workers of each group will kill the queens of the other group, the study discovered.
In the colony with a single queen, the queen is a larger insect that amasses a lot of fat and eventually flies away to start a new colony. Whereas, the other group has several smaller queens that remain with their original colony, the AFP reported.
The study, which will be published in the Thursday issue of the journal Nature, revealed that a sequence of genes, marked as B and b, on different chromosomes determine which type of colony an ant will belong to.
According to LiveScience, worker ants that carry the B variant only will accept a single queen that carries the chromosome variant BB. However, worker ants that carry the b variant will accept multiple queens as long as they carry the chromosome variant Bb.
"This is the first description of a social chromosome," the study's authors wrote, "yet it is likely that such supergenes affecting social organization also exist in other social insects."
The study also discovered that the chromosomal differences among the ants have links to several anatomical differences, including the size of male workers, the structure of their sperm and the queen's productiveness. According to LiveScience, Wurm and his fellow study researchers expect to delve deeper into the insects' chromosomes to discover which of the 616 genes in the gene sequence are responsible for the differences among the ants.
"Our discovery could help in developing novel pest-control strategies," Wurm added. "For example, a pesticide could artificially deactivate the genes in to social chromosome and induce social anarchy within the colony."
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