One mother for two species via obligate cross-species cloning in ants

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Juve, Y.; Lutrat, C.; Ha, A.; Weyna, A.; Lauroua, E.; Silva, A. C. Afonso; Roux, C.; Schifani, E.; Galkowski, C.; Lebas, C.; Allio, R.; Stoyanov, I.; Galtier, N.; Schlick-Steiner, B. C.; Steiner, F. M.; Baas, D.; Kaufmann, B.; Romiguier, J.
• 署名单位: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS); Institut de Recherche pour le Developpement (IRD); Universite de Montpellier; University of Lausanne; Universite de Lille; Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS); CNRS - Institute of Ecology & Environment (INEE); University of Parma; Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas (CSIC); Pompeu Fabra University; CSIC-UPF - Institut de Biologia Evolutiva (IBE); Institut de Recherche pour le Developpement (IRD); Universite de Montpellier; INRAE; CIRAD; Institut Agro; Institut Agro Montpellier; Plovdiv University; University of Innsbruck; Universite Lyon 1; Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS); Institut National de la Sante et de la Recherche Medicale (Inserm); Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS); Universite Lyon 1; CNRS - Institute of Ecology & Environment (INEE)
• 刊物名称: NATURE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0028-0836; 1476-4687
• DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-09425-w
• 发表日期: 2025-10-09
• 关键词: major evolutionary transitions; genetic caste determination; clonal reproduction; genome; tool; assembler

摘要

Living organisms are assumed to produce same-species offspring1,2. Here, we report a shift from this norm in Messor ibericus, an ant that lays individuals from two distinct species. In this life cycle, females must clone males of another species because they require their sperm to produce the worker caste. As a result, males from the same mother exhibit distinct genomes and morphologies, as they belong to species that diverged over 5 million years ago. The evolutionary history of this system appears as sexual parasitism3 that evolved into a natural case of cross-species cloning4,5, resulting in the maintenance of a male-only lineage cloned through distinct species' ova. We term females exhibiting this reproductive mode as xenoparous, meaning they give birth to other species as part of their life cycle.