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Inspiring Science

~ Casting light on great ideas

Inspiring Science

Tag Archives: Fire ant

Sex and sociality: the genetics of being different

01 Friday Feb 2013

Posted by sedeer in Development, Genetics, Hymenoptera, Insects

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

Ant, Ant colony, ants, Chromosome, DNA, Fire ant, Gene, polygyny, Popular science, Queen ant, Red imported fire ant, science

Solenopsis invicta (Photo credit: AJC1)An international team of researchers studying fire ants have discovered the first “social chromosome”.  While this is obviously exciting to those of us who are fascinated by the advanced social organization of ants, the discovery also has broader implications.  The mechanism the researchers uncovered is similar to how sex is determined in many animals, creating the tantalizing possibility that it might be an example of a more general mechanism for evolving distinctly different complex behaviours. Continue reading →

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