Breaking the Rules of Inheritance: The Ants That Birth Another Species

Breaking the Rules of Inheritance: The Ants That Birth Another Species

Kylee French

BIOL-2110-001 - GENETICS

Professor Guy F. Barbato

September 16, 2025

    Genetics has all kinds of rules in our lives, for it is everywhere we look. Its involved in animals, humans, our food we eat, and genetics is everywhere, guiding how traits are passed from one generation to the next. In genetics, we have studied for years that although it could be differnt looking, a species will always birth the same species. In other terms, a parent, like a whale, will always produce another baby whale when giving birth to its offspring. A whale is not going to produce a baby dolphin as its next of kin. However, all of this thinking might change how we look at genetics, for an ant species may have just challenged this comfortable idea in genetics. An article titled “These Ants Found a Loophole for a Fundamental Rule of Life” has recently been researching Messor ibericus ants birthing a different species to their own.

    Researchers recently discovered that queens of the Mediterranean harvester ant species Messor ibericus can produce male offspring that belong to an entirely different species, Messor structor. This concept was new to researchers, and at first, they didn't believe it either. A quote from the article states, “When they started their research, the idea that M. ibericus queens could lay two species of eggs was 'like a joke' among the team members, Dr. Romiguier said. As sampling efforts went on, it became a more serious hypothesis” (Giaimo, 2025). This was an ongoing battle for researchers, at first they didn't know what to call this new phenomena, but to name this new reproductive strategy they named it xenoparity. The M. ibericus queens are able to generate males of another species without mating with them. These foreign males then mate with M. ibericus queens to produce hybrid worker ants, which take on all the labor needed to maintain the colony. While studying this, researchers thought that the other species was living in their colonies. “Some M. ibericus colonies with hybrid workers are hundreds of miles from the closest M. structor colony. How are the M. ibericus queens even finding M. structor drone-dads to father their hybrid workers?” (Giaimo, 2025).

    This finding was astonishing because the two species diverged about five million years ago—roughly the same time humans and chimpanzees split from a common ancestor. The discovery challenges long-held genetic rules about inheritance and shows how evolution can produce unexpected strategies for survival. Although this discovery in new and needs to be studied more, I think this is a great next step for learning how species needs to adapt to survive. This discovery shows just how creative and resourceful nature can be, and it makes me wonder how humans might learn from it.

References

Giaimo, C. (2025, September 15). These Ants Found a Loophole for a Fundamental Rule of Life. NY Times. Retrieved September 17, 2025, from https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/15/science/ants-species-babies.html?searchResultPosition=4

Strickland, A. (2025, September 13). Ant queen gives birth to two different species. CNN. Retrieved September 17, 2025, from https://www.cnn.com/2025/09/13/science/iberian-harvester-ants-two-species

Ant Royalty: How Juvenile Hormone Determines Ants Social Hierarchy

Scientists at the University of Copenhagen have been researching the system ants use to determine the types between them in the colony; an example of this could be a worker compared to the queen. The researchers focused on a hormone named juvenile hormone (JH) and its role in developing ants into different types, such as workers or queens. The specimen used for the experiment was pharaoh ants, as in the species, an ant's role in the colony is decided upon birth. The researchers fed 237 baby worker pharaoh ants during the last stage of their development to see whether the juvenile hormone would affect the ants, changing their type from worker ant to queen ant, determining how the juvenile hormone affects the physical features of different ant types.

The study produced intriguing results. When born, worker ants fed the juvenile hormone during the final stages of development started to look similar to young queen ants. These modified workers showed phenotypes of longer bodies, extra eyes on the forehead, and the development of wings with the muscles required for flight. The modified workers also showed the development of a unique organ inside queen ants that stores sperm. However, one significant difference between a natural-born queen and the modified worker ants was that the treated workers did not grow ovaries, which is crucial in making eggs. This data shows that the primary time where the juvenile hormone affects the ant's development does not happen in the egg, as while some changes were observed among the modified workers, the crucial component of ovaries for reproduction was missing. The research also helps explain how new types of ants, like soldiers, might have evolved in other ant species, as natural selection may have favored certain ants with higher levels of juvenile hormones. This hybrid ant between workers and queens may be more favorable for survival in natural selection leading to a new type of ant within the colony.

This study shows that ant colonies act a little like cells work in an animal's body, suggesting that how ants are developed in the colony is more flexible than first believed. The juvenile hormone controls the development of the ant, predetermining the job an ant will have within the colony. This research also allows us to see how much hormones affect a species when being developed as a kid and how it may affect the development.


Article: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/11/241122130358.htm

Original Paper: https://journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/220/1/53/33443/Caste-development-and-evolution-in-ants-it-s-all

Fungi Zombifying Ants

A fungus, known as Ophiocoryceps, will thrive inside of ants when they come in contact with one another. As the fungus grows, it causes the ant to leave their colony, and climb up a tree where it will hangout on the leaves and die. The fungus then starts living up in the tree after growing out of the ant. This fungus also infected beetles, however, they did not react how the ants do (as in leaving their colonies). Researchers will be furthering research on the genes the different species of Ophiocoryceps have that make ants behave this way. They hypothesis that this will not be a simple gene that causes these ants to behave this way, and that it is going to involve multiple sets of genes from the fungus that changes and forces ants to do things out of the ordinary.



I think it's pretty cool that these fungi can alter how ants behave. It's also even weirder that they didn't affect the beetles as in changing how they act. The information that can be found from this study could be revolutionary, as we could find out genetic information on how a species is able to completely alter another species mindset and innate actions.


https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/24/science/ant-zombies-fungus.html?searchResultPosition=2

https://www.livescience.com/47751-zombie-fungus-picky-about-ant-brains.html

Ant raids: It's all in the genes

Scientist has recently been studying certain ant attacks and have been intergrading their offspring into their own colonies in order for survival. They have recently discovered that these raids required to achieve the goals are controlled by a different gene in each of the closely related ant (Temnothroax). This proves that through the different changed in the genetic material is due to random. This means that although there are several different paths, they could all have the same outcome.

Within this research, the scientist at Johannes-Gutenberg University Mainz was able to identify two specific attack genes in slave maker ants. The first gene is “Acyl-CoA Delta (11) Desaturase which causes the attackers to release chemical scents during the raid. These scent mask the attackers, which helps them lead a successful raid. On the other hand the other gene that was identified was called Trypsin-7, which appears to have an affect on the recognition potential of identifying the host colonies required for a raid.

http://www.innovations-report.com/html/reports/life-sciences/ant-raids-it-s-all-in-the-genes.html https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/03/180307100630.htm

Gene Editing on Ants

An article from Discover Magazine wrote about a science research team from New York University on the testing of ants with a gene modification tool called CRISPR. CRIPSR has been the face of genetics recently because of the wonders it's capable of doing. With the support of Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the science team are not conducting some ordinary ant study, they are focusing on how ant colonies successfully organize and execute difficult tasks.  The research team had used the CRISPR to remove a single gene code that is crucial towards the translation of a protein correlated to the working of olfactory receptors in Indian jumping an
ts. When the gene was removed, the ants were unresponsive to sense of smell, a trait which is passed in future generations. With this sense removed, it is observed that this was very important in the life of an ant. Also the Indian jumping ants' brains were changed as well. A fraction of 'glomeruli', an important factor that processes olfactory information, was shrunk in size on the ants' brains. This as a result affected their organization, which was unusual because ants are known to be very good at organization. These observations were very insightful because it give more information towards the cause and effects with CRISPR technology.

Gene-Modified Ants Show How Societies Are Organized

In the article named, Gene-Modified Ants Shed Light on How Societies Are Organized, it is explained how scientists manipulated the DNA of ants in the laboratory to study how they work in their own society. These scientists are also hoping that ants turn into a model organism just like Drosophila are. Ants are good at taking over disturbed habitats. Also, the ant’s colonies are easy to manipulate. When their genes are modified, these genes are easy to keep track of which makes them another reason to become a model organism. Technology paved a great way for science. Especially in this case. The researches color coordinate certain types of ants which are modified and allow them for the computer to keep track of their movements every second of the day. This is incredible. The purpose of doing this experiment is stated by Dr. Kronauer, “Our ultimate goal is to have a fundamental understanding of how a complex biological system works.” Ants social behaviors are amazing for not being able to physically talk. Scientists wonder how they communicate so well in their society and this might lead to some discoveries. Also, you might be wondering what good does this do for humans. The ants in their colonies are similar to neurons in the brain. I know this might seem bizarre. But, both the brain and ants have synchronized labor. It is much easier to manipulate ants than brain cells which is which ants are acting as the model organism. This research can reveal secrets about human disease such as why cancer cells ignore signals. Also, in the article Dr. Kronauer explains, “We could learn something fundamental about autism and depression along the way.” Personally, I think this is wonderful and can be a life changing experiment for humans. It takes curiosity and dedication to discover new things. I hope scientists do not give up on researching into this because rather than having lab rats and lab mice, which are great, we have a different animal which they can study other aspects that the other animals did not have. Humans are in a society like these ants are. Some actions that the ants do in their society can also be explained as to why humans interact the way they do with one another. I am excited to see where this experiment goes in ten or so years. 

http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/03/world-s-first-genetically-modified-ants-shed-light-how-complex-insect-societies-evolved

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/23/science/gene-modified-ants.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fscience&action=click&contentCollection=science&region=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=6&pgtype=sectionfront&_r=0