The tight genome size of ants : diversity and evolution under ancestral state reconstruction and base composition.
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Date
2020
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Abstract
The mechanisms and processes driving change and variation in the genome size (GS) are not well known, and only
a small set of ant species has been studied. Ants are an ecologically successful insect group present in most distinct
ecosystems worldwide. Considering their wide distribution and ecological plasticity in different environmental
contexts, we aimed to expand GS estimation within Formicidae to examine distribution patterns and variation in
GS and base composition and to reconstruct the ancestral state of this character in an attempt to elucidate the
generalized pattern of genomic expansions. Genome size estimates were generated for 99 ant species, including
new GS estimates for 91 species of ants, and the mean GS of Formicidae was found to be 0.38 pg. The AT/GC ratio
was 62.40/37.60. The phylogenetic reconstruction suggested an ancestral GS of 0.38 pg according to the Bayesian
inference/Markov chain Monte Carlo method and 0.37 pg according to maximum likelihood and parsimony methods;
significant differences in GS were observed between the subfamilies sampled. Our results suggest that the evolution
of GS in Formicidae occurred through loss and accumulation of non-coding regions, mainly transposable elements,
and occasionally by whole genome duplication. However, further studies are needed to verify whether these changes
in DNA content are related to colonization processes, as suggested at the intraspecific level.
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Keywords
AT/GC ratio, Character reconstruction, DNA content, Phylogeny, Transposable elements
Citation
MOURA, M. N.; CARDOSO, D. C.; CRISTIANO, M. P. The tight genome size of ants: diversity and evolution under ancestral state reconstruction and base composition. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, v. 20, 2020. Disponível em: <https://academic.oup.com/zoolinnean/article-abstract/193/1/124/6036549?redirectedFrom=fulltext>. Acesso em: 29 abr. 2022.