By virtue of being in a social group, the genome itself may respond by selecting more social rather than non-social genes. The behaviour and social environment come first setting the stage for future molecular evolution.
In addition, the researchers have found that a similar genetic evolution happened independently in different species at different times, suggesting there is a unifying principle leading to the same social trait.
“There seems to be something about sociality specifically that is driving the genome to evolve in this way. It’s a very interesting finding previously reported only in ants and honeybees,” says lead researcher Associate Professor Sandra Rehan of the Faculty of Science.
