CYP9E Expression and Repertoire in Lasius Ants: Making the Ecological Connection

Ecological adaptations of a species can be shaped by its repertoire of gene variants. The black garden ant Lasius niger shows high level of CYP9E duplication. In contrast to its congener, the jet ant L. fuliginosus, it exhibits tolerance toward fungus-infected aphids. In these two species, we compared expression of a subset of CYP9E genes, potentially involved in mycotoxin metabolism. No significant differences in expression were found. Similarly to L. niger, the jet ant has six copies of these genes, grouping pairwise on the phylogenetic tree with their L. niger counterparts. Beyond the gene subset targeted in the expression study, we found multiple CYP9E genes in the genomes of L. niger, L. fuliginosus, and – fewer by a third – in the outgroup Formica rufa, suggesting CYP9E amplification as an ancestral trait of the genus Lasius or a more basal clade.