Social Antagonism Facilitates Supergene Expansion in Ants

Antagonistic selection has long been considered a major driver of the formation and expansion of sex chromosomes. For example, sexually antagonistic variation on an autosome can select for suppressed recombination between that autosome and the sex chromosome, leading to a neo-sex chromosome. Autosomal supergenes, chromosomal regions containing tightly linked variants affecting the same complex trait, share similarities with sex chromosomes, raising the possibility that sex chromosome evolution models can explain the evolution of genome structure and recombination in other contexts. We tested this premise in a Formica ant species, wherein we identified four supergene haplotypes on chromosome 3 underlying colony social organization and sex ratio. We discovered a novel rearranged supergene variant (9r) on chromosome 9 underlying queen miniaturization. The 9r is in strong linkage disequilibrium with one chromosome 3 haplotype (P) found in multi-queen (polygyne) colonies. We suggest that queen miniaturization is strongly disfavored in the single-queen (monogyne) background and is thus socially antagonistic. As such, divergent selection experienced by ants living in alternative social "environments" (monogyne and polygyne) may have contributed to the emergence of a genetic polymorphism on chromosome 9 and associated queen-size dimorphism. Consequently, an ancestral polygyne-associated haplotype may have expanded to include the polymorphism on chromosome 9, resulting in a larger region of suppressed recombination spanning two chromosomes. This process is analogous to the formation of neo-sex chromosomes and consistent with models of expanding regions of suppressed recombination. We propose that miniaturized queens, 16%-20% smaller than queens without 9r, could be incipient intraspecific social parasites.