Scientists have finally sequenced the entire genome of an ant,
actually two very different species of ant, and the insights
gleaned from their genetic blueprints are already yielding
tantalizing clues to the extraordinary social behavior of ants.
A result of a ground-breaking collaborative research project led
by Danny Reinberg, PhD, professor of biochemistry at NYU Langone
Medical Center and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Investigator, the analysis of the genomes is published in the
August 27, 2010 issue of Science. One of the ant species is
known as Jerdon's jumping ant, and the other, the Florida
carpenter ant, is a destructive pest in the Southeastern United
States. Their complex social behavior, and their ability to be
maintained in a laboratory, make them ideal species to study
epigenetics, how genes are turned on or off in response to
changing conditions rather than through alterations to actual
sequences of DNA. Epigenetics determine which genes are
expressed in cells, thereby say distinguishing a