Social structure and genome size in snapping shrimps

Snapping shrimp species that live in colonies that cooperatively rear offspring have relatively large genomes, according to a study. Genome size varies widely between species and is generally unrelated to an organism’s complexity. Even within the same genus of snapping shrimp, Synalpheus, genome size and social organization vary. To determine how genome size and social behavior are linked, Solomon Chak and colleagues investigated the impact of eusociality, or the division of reproductive labor, on genome size in 33 snapping shrimp species. The authors found that eusocial species exhibited larger genome size than noneusocial species and that the increase is due to an accumulation of transposable elements. Self-replicating regions of DNA, transposable elements can accumulate in genomes over evolutionary time, and different classes of transposable elements were found to have accumulated in different shrimp species. Reconstructing the ancestral states of the genomes through modeling, the authors found that both genome size and transposable elements appear to have increased over evolutionary time in the eusocial species, whereas the other species maintained similar genome size with fewer transposable elements. According to the authors, the study uncovers a dynamic relationship between genome size and social evolution in snapping shrimp, in which social traits can influence genome architecture.

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Article #20-25051: “Eusociality in snapping shrimps is associated with larger genomes and an accumulation of transposable elements,” by Solomon T. C. Chak, Stephen E. Harris, Kristin M. Hultgren, Nicholas W. Jeffery, and Dustin R. Rubenstein

MEDIA CONTACT: Solomon Chak, SUNY, Old Westbury, NY; tel: 516-876-2755; email: <

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