Genus-wide characterization of bumblebee genomes provides insights into their evolution and variation in ecological and behavioral traits
Name
msaa240.pdf
Description
Published version
Size
1.74 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
1f43e5af851ad7e39dcdecfc7c73382c
Author(s)
Sun, Cheng
Huang, Jiaxing
Wang, Yun
Zhao, Xiaomeng
Su, Long
Thomas, Gregg W C
Zhao, Mengya
Zhang, Xingtan
Jungreis, Irwin
Kellis, Manolis
Date Issued
September 2020
Journal
Molecular Biology and Evolution
Publisher
Oxford University Press (OUP)
Citation
Sun, Cheng et al. "Genus-wide characterization of bumblebee genomes provides insights into their evolution and variation in ecological and behavioral traits." Molecular Biology and Evolution (September 2020): msaa240 © 2020 The Author(s)
Version
Final published version
Abstract
Bumblebees are a diverse group of globally important pollinators in natural ecosystems and for agricultural food production. With both eusocial and solitary life-cycle phases, and some social parasite species, they are especially interesting models to understand social evolution, behavior, and ecology. Reports of many species in decline point to pathogen transmission, habitat loss, pesticide usage, and global climate change, as interconnected causes. These threats to bumblebee diversity make our reliance on a handful of well-studied species for agricultural pollination particularly precarious. To broadly sample bumblebee genomic and phenotypic diversity, we de novo sequenced and assembled the genomes of 17 species, representing all 15 subgenera, producing the first genus-wide quantification of genetic and genomic variation potentially underlying key ecological and behavioral traits. The species phylogeny resolves subgenera relationships while incomplete lineage sorting likely drives high levels of gene tree discordance. Five chromosome-level assemblies show a stable 18-chromosome karyotype, with major rearrangements creating 25 chromosomes in social parasites. Differential transposable element activity drives changes in genome sizes, with putative domestications of repetitive sequences influencing gene coding and regulatory potential. Dynamically evolving gene families and signatures of positive selection point to genus-wide variation in processes linked to foraging, diet and metabolism, immunity and detoxification, as well as adaptations for life at high altitudes. Our study reveals how bumblebee genes and genomes have evolved across the Bombus phylogeny and identifies variations potentially linked to key ecological and behavioral traits of these important pollinators.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaa240
