Lukas Schrader

Transposable elements as evolutionary catalysts of ant macrodiversity

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. Her...

Queen loss fails to elicit physiological and transcriptional responses in workers of the invasive garden ant Lasius neglectus.

Colonies of insects with morphologically distinct castes have been called superorganisms because the function of their queens and workers is analogous to the germline and soma in metazoan bodies. In the case of formicoid ants, workers typically have lost the sperm storage organ,...