TY - JOUR A1 - Roux, Julien A1 - Privman, Eyal A1 - Moretti, Sebastien A1 - Daub, Josephine T. A1 - Robinson-Rechavi, Marc A1 - Keller, Laurent T1 - Patterns of Positive Selection in Seven Ant Genomes Y1 - 2014/07/01 JF - Molecular Biology and Evolution JO - Molecular Biology and Evolution SP - 1661 EP - 1685 N1 - 10.1093/molbev/msu141 VL - 31 IS - 7 UR - https://academic.oup.com/mbe/article/31/7/1661/2925818 N2 - The evolution of ants is marked by remarkable adaptations that allowed the development of very complex social systems. To identify how ant-specific adaptations are associated with patterns of molecular evolution, we searched for signs of positive selection on amino-acid changes in proteins. We identified 24 functional categories of genes which were enriched for positively selected genes in the ant lineage. We also reanalyzed genome-wide data sets in bees and flies with the same methodology to check whether positive selection was specific to ants or also present in other insects. Notably, genes implicated in immunity were enriched for positively selected genes in the three lineages, ruling out the hypothesis that the evolution of hygienic behaviors in social insects caused a major relaxation of selective pressure on immune genes. Our scan also indicated that genes implicated in neurogenesis and olfaction started to undergo increased positive selection before the evolution of sociality in Hymenoptera. Finally, the comparison between these three lineages allowed us to pinpoint molecular evolution patterns that were specific to the ant lineage. In particular, there was ant-specific recurrent positive selection on genes with mitochondrial functions, suggesting that mitochondrial activity was improved during the evolution of this lineage. This might have been an important step toward the evolution of extreme lifespan that is a hallmark of ants. ER -