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Sex mosaics in a male dimorphic ant Cardiocondyla kagutsuchi

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Abstract

Gynandromorphy, or the development of organisms with a combination of male and female morphological features, is common in Hymenoptera. The underlying mechanism is likely associated with the sex-determination system, and studying this phenomenon should lead to a deeper understanding of both embryonic development and sex determination. The reproductive capabilities of gynandromorphs (hereafter, sex mosaics) remain unclear. We studied gynandromorphy in the Malaysian ant Cardiocondyla kagutsuchi, which has sex mosaics of queens (gynandromorphs; mosaic of queens and winged male) and workers (ergatandromorphs; mosaic of worker and wingless ergatoid male). These sex mosaics were classified into seven morphological categories. Most individuals had more male than female body areas. Behavioral observations revealed that sex mosaics behave more in accordance with the “sex” of their brain than that of the reproductive organs (gaster). Relative DNA quantities showed that both female and male regions contained haploid and diploid nuclei, irrespective of their phenotypic appearance, indicating that external appearance did not reflect internal tissues. Nearly one third of the adults were sex mosaics and they were not infected with Wolbachia. Our results suggest that the production of sex mosaics in this species does not pose a substantial cost to colonies and that the underlying causes are therefore not strongly selected against.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to M.S. Hirai, Chiyoda Science, and Ikedarika for assistance with the DNA analysis and Dr. R. Hashim, Institute of Biology, University of Malaya, for his valuable suggestions in the fieldwork in Malaysia. We thank Dr. N. I. Kondo for kindly providing the primer pairs. We also thank Drs. J. Heinze and J. Abe for their valuable comments and suggestions to improve our manuscript. Comments by three anonymous reviewers were enormously helpful to improving our manuscript. This work was supported by a grant-in-aid for scientific research from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (number 14405036).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Insect Ecology, Faculty of Applied Biological Sciences, Gifu University, Yanagido 1-1, Gifu, 501-1193, Japan

    Juri Yoshizawa & Koji Tsuchida

  2. Chiyoda Science Co., Ltd., Kajityo 1-9-7, Tokyo, 101-0044, Japan

    Kohei Mimori

  3. Department of Biology, Faculty of Education, Gifu University, Yanagido 1-1, Gifu, 501-1193, Japan

    Katsusuke Yamauchi

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  1. Juri Yoshizawa
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  2. Kohei Mimori
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  3. Katsusuke Yamauchi
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  4. Koji Tsuchida
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Correspondence to Juri Yoshizawa.

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Yoshizawa, J., Mimori, K., Yamauchi, K. et al. Sex mosaics in a male dimorphic ant Cardiocondyla kagutsuchi . Naturwissenschaften 96, 49–55 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-008-0447-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-008-0447-z

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