title: Clonal reproduction with androgenesis and somatic recombination: the case of the ant Cardiocondyla kagutsuchi.
abstract: In haplodiploid insects such as ants, male sexuals develop from unfertilised haploid eggs, while female sexuals and workers develop from fertilized diploid eggs. However, some ant species do not exchange their gene pool between sexes; both male and female sexuals are clonally produced, while workers are sexually produced. To date, three ant species, Wasmannia auropunctata, Vollenhovia emeryi, and Paratrechina longicornis, have been reported to reproduce using such reproductive systems. In this study, we reveal that in one lineage of the ant Cardiocondyla kagutsuchi, male and female sexuals are also clonally produced. In contrast to the abovementioned three species, the workers were not only sexually produced but had recombinant sequences in their nuclear internal transcribed spacer regions, although the recombinant sequences were not detected in male or female sexuals. These results suggest that the lineage likely possesses a mechanism to compensate for the reduction in genetic variation due to clonal reproduction with somatic recombination that occurs within the workers.
authors.affiliation: The United Graduate School of Agricultural Science, Gifu University, 1-1 Yanagido, Gifu, 501-1193, Japan. okkie0626@yahoo.co.jp.
authors.forename: Ichiro
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Okita
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Applied Biological Sciences, Gifu University, 1-1 Yanagido, Gifu, 501-1193, Japan.
authors.forename: Koji
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Tsuchida
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001000:Ants / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D001483:Base Sequence; D021903:DNA, Ribosomal Spacer; D005260:Female; D014644:Genetic Variation; D005838:Genotype; D008297:Male; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D011995:Recombination, Genetic; D012098:Reproduction; D016415:Sequence Alignment
chemical_list: D021903:DNA, Ribosomal Spacer
keywords: Ant; Cardiocondyla; Clonal reproduction; Recombination