Transposable elements as evolutionary catalysts of ant macrodiversity
TL;DR
The findings demonstrate the broad-scale impact of TE-dependent genome evolution during ant adaptive radiation and suggest that similar comparative analyses across other major lineages will be worthwhile to reconstruct the wider macroevolutionary impact of TEs.
Abstract
Transposable elements (TEs) are key contributors to genome evolution, yet their macroevolutionary roles in adaptive radiations remain poorly understood, as high-quality genomic resources at sufficient phylogenetic breadth and appropriate comparative methods have been lacking. Here, we analyze 163 genomes spanning 12 of 16 extant ant subfamilies to characterize TE impacts over the past 100 million years. We identify convergent TE acquisition bursts in ancestors of the most speciose ant clades, preceding rapid diversification following the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event approximately 66 million years ago. We demonstrate that TEs associate with expansions of odorant receptors and other key gene families and reveal notable compartmentalization of ant genomes into faster-evolving TE-rich and more conserved TE-poor regions. Our findings demonstrate the broad-scale impact of TE-dependent genome evolution during ant adaptive radiation and suggest that similar comparative analyses across other major lineages will be worthwhile to reconstruct the wider macroevolutionary impact of TEs.