PXD037863

PXD037863 is an original dataset announced via ProteomeXchange.

Title	Intra-colony venom diversity contributes to maintaining eusociality in a cooperatively breeding ant
Description	Background: Eusociality is widely considered to evolve through kin selection, where the reproductive success of an individual’s close relative is favored at the expense of its own. High genetic relatedness is thus considered a prerequisite for eusociality. While ants are textbook examples of eusocial animals, not all ants form colonies of closely related individuals. One such example is the ectatommine ant Rhytidoponera metallica, which predominantly forms predominantly queen-less colonies that have such a low intra-colony relatedness that they have been proposed to represent a transient, unstable form of eusociality. However, R. metallica is among the most abundant and widespread ants on the Australian continent. This apparent contrast provides an example of how inclusive fitness may not by itself explain the maintenance of eusociality and raises the question of what other selective advantages maintain their eusocial lifestyle. Results: We provide a comprehensive portrait of the venom of R. metallica and show that the colony-wide venom consists of a, for an ant, exceptionally high diversity of functionally distinct toxins. These toxins have evolved under strong positive selection, which is normally expected to reduce genetic variance. Yet, R. metallica exhibits remarkable intra-colony variation, with workers sharing only a relatively small proportion of toxins in their venoms. We also find that this variation is not due to the presence of chemical castes, but that it has a genetic foundation that is at least in part explained by toxin allelic diversity. Conclusions: Taken together, our results suggest that the toxin diversity contained in R. metallica colonies may be maintained by a form of group selection, which selects for colonies that can exploit more resources and defend against a wider range of predators. We propose that increased intra-colony genetic variance resulting from low kinship may itself provide a selective advantage in the form of an expanded pharmacological venom repertoire. These findings provide an example of how group selection on adaptive phenotypes may contribute to maintaining eusociality where a prerequisite for kin selection is diminished.
HostingRepository	PRIDE
AnnounceDate	2022-12-09
AnnouncementXML	Submission_2022-12-08_18:13:22.376.xml
DigitalObjectIdentifier
ReviewLevel	Peer-reviewed dataset
DatasetOrigin	Original dataset
RepositorySupport	Unsupported dataset by repository
PrimarySubmitter	VanessaSchendel
SpeciesList	scientific name: Rhytidoponera metallica; NCBI TaxID: 148364;
ModificationList	No PTMs are included in the dataset
Instrument	TripleTOF 5600

Revision	Datetime	Status	ChangeLog Entry
0	2022-10-31 09:25:50	ID requested
⏵ 1	2022-12-08 18:13:22	announced

Dataset with its publication pending

submitter keyword: Formicidae

kin selection

group selection

eusocial

peptide

toxin

Eivind A. B.Undheim
contact affiliation	Centre for Advanced Imaging, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia. Centre for Biodiversity Dynamics, Department of Biology, NTNU, N-7491 Trondheim, Norway Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Synthesis, Department of Biosciences, University of Oslo, 0316 Oslo, Norway
contact email	e.a.b.undheim@ibv.uio.no
lab head
VanessaSchendel
contact affiliation	University of Queensland
contact email	v.schendel@uq.edu.au
dataset submitter

Dataset FTP location NOTE: Most web browsers have now discontinued native support for FTP access within the browser window. But you can usually install another FTP app (we recommend FileZilla) and configure your browser to launch the external application when you click on this FTP link. Or otherwise, launch an app that supports FTP (like FileZilla) and use this address: ftp://ftp.pride.ebi.ac.uk/pride/data/archive/2022/12/PXD037863

PRIDE project URI

• PRIDE
  1. PXD037863
     1. Label: PRIDE project
     2. Name: Intra-colony venom diversity contributes to maintaining eusociality in a cooperatively breeding ant