Skip Navigation



MBE Advance Access published online on March 9, 2005
Molecular Biology and Evolution, doi:10.1093/molbev/msi133
This Article
Right arrow Advance Access manuscript (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow Supplementary Material
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
22/6/1393    most recent
msi133v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Bromham, L.
Right arrow Articles by Leys, R.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Bromham, L.
Right arrow Articles by Leys, R.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author 2005. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oupjournals.org
Accepted February 28, 2005

Research Article

Sociality and the Rate of Molecular Evolution

Lindell Bromham 1* and Remko Leys 2

1 Centre for the Study of Evolution, School of Life Sciences, University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton BN1 9QG, UNITED KINGDOM; Department of ZEN (Zoology and Entomology), University of Queensland, Brisbane 4072, AUSTRALIA
2 Evolutionary Biology Unit, South Australian Museum, Adelaide 5000, and Adelaide University, South Australia, AUSTRALIA

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
Lindell Bromham, E-mail: L.D.Bromham{at}sussex.ac.uk


  Abstract

The molecular clock does not tick at a uniform rate in all taxa, but may be influenced by species characteristics. Eusocial species (those with reproductive division of labour) have been predicted to have faster rates of molecular evolution than their non-social relatives because of greatly reduced population size: if most individuals in a population are non-reproductive and only one or few queens produce all of the offspring, then eusocial animals could have much lower effective population sizes than their solitary relatives, which should increase the substitution of "nearly neutral" mutations. An earlier study reported faster rates in eusocial honey bees and vespid wasps, but failed to correct for phylogenetic non-independence or to distinguish between potential causes of rate variation. Because sociality has evolved independently in many different lineages, it is possible to conduct a more wide-ranging study to test the generality of the relationship. We have conducted a comparative analysis of 25 phylogenetically-independent pairs of social lineages and their non-social relatives, including bees, wasps, ants, termites, shrimps and molerats, using a range of available DNA sequences (mitochondrial and nuclear DNA coding for proteins and RNAs, and non-translated sequences). By including a wide range of social taxa we were able to test whether there is a general influence of sociality on rates of molecular evolution, and to test specific predictions of the hypothesis: (i) that social species have faster rates because they have reduced effective population sizes; (ii) that mitochondrial genes would show a greater effect of sociality than nuclear genes; and (iii) that rates of molecular evolution should be correlated with the degree of sociality. We find no consistent pattern in rates of molecular evolution between social and non-social lineages, and no evidence that mitochondrial genes show faster rates in social taxa. However, we show that the most highly eusocial hymenoptera do have faster rates than their non-social relatives. We also find that social parasites (that utilize the workers from related species to produce their own offspring) have faster rates than their social relatives, which is consisted with an effect of lower effective population size on rate of molecular evolution. Our results illustrate the importance of allowing for phylogenetic non-independence when conducting investigations of determinants of variation in rate of molecular evolution.

Keywords: eusocial; substitution rate; nearly neutral theory; molecular clock; effective population size; comparative method.
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USAHome page
C. Tsantes and M. E. Steiper
Age at first reproduction explains rate variation in the strepsirrhine molecular clock
PNAS, October 27, 2009; 106(43): 18165 - 18170.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 Mol Biol EvolHome page
L. Viljakainen, J. D. Evans, M. Hasselmann, O. Rueppell, S. Tingek, and P. Pamilo
Rapid Evolution of Immune Proteins in Social Insects
Mol. Biol. Evol., August 1, 2009; 26(8): 1791 - 1801.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 Biol LettHome page
L. Bromham
Why do species vary in their rate of molecular evolution?
Biol Lett, June 23, 2009; 5(3): 401 - 404.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USAHome page
J. Charlesworth and A. Eyre-Walker
The other side of the nearly neutral theory, evidence of slightly advantageous back-mutations
PNAS, October 23, 2007; 104(43): 16992 - 16997.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 Mol Biol EvolHome page
P. Pamilo, L. Viljakainen, and A. Vihavainen
Exceptionally High Density of NUMTs in the Honeybee Genome
Mol. Biol. Evol., June 1, 2007; 24(6): 1340 - 1346.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USAHome page
J. A. Thomas, J. J. Welch, M. Woolfit, and L. Bromham
There is no universal molecular clock for invertebrates, but rate variation does not scale with body size
PNAS, May 9, 2006; 103(19): 7366 - 7371.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.