@article{66a214b93d1340eca2d931871fb63a5e,
title = "Functional innovation promotes diversification of form in the evolution of an ultrafast trap-jaw mechanism in ants",
abstract = "Evolutionary innovations underlie the rise of diversity and complexity—the 2 long-term trends in the history of life. How does natural selection redesign multiple interacting parts to achieve a new emergent function? We investigated the evolution of a biomechanical innovation, the latch-spring mechanism of trap-jaw ants, to address 2 outstanding evolutionary problems: how form and function change in a system during the evolution of new complex traits, and whether such innovations and the diversity they beget are repeatable in time and space. Using a new phylogenetic reconstruction of 470 species, and X-ray microtomography and high-speed videography of representative taxa, we found the trap-jaw mechanism evolved independently 7 to 10 times in a single ant genus (Strumigenys), resulting in the repeated evolution of diverse forms on different continents. The trap mechanism facilitates a 6 to 7 order of magnitude greater mandible acceleration relative to simpler ancestors, currently the fastest recorded acceleration of a resettable animal movement. We found that most morphological diversification occurred after evolution of latch-spring mechanisms, which evolved via minor realignments of mouthpart structures. This finding, whereby incremental changes in form lead to a change of function, followed by large morphological reorganization around the new function, provides a model for understanding the evolution of complex biomechanical traits, as well as insights into why such innovations often happen repeatedly.",
author = "Booher, {Douglas B.} and Gibson, {Joshua C.} and Cong Liu and Longino, {John T.} and Fisher, {Brian L.} and Milan Janda and Nitish Narula and Evropi Toulkeridou and Mikheyev, {Alexander S.} and Suarez, {Andrew V.} and Economo, {Evan P.}",
note = "Funding Information: This work was supported by subsidy funding to the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST) and a JSPS Kakenhi Grant-in-Aid to E.P.E. (No. 17K15180), the National Science Foundation (NSF IOS-1755336 to A.V.S, NSF GRFP 201316846 to D.B.B., NSF Postdoc 000733206 to D.B.B., NSF-DEB-16755076 to B.L.F., NSF-DEB-1932405 to J.T.L.), CONACYT (DICB-2016 #282471 to M.J.), Czech Science Foundation (# P505/12/2467 to M.J.), and a Tinker grant to J.C.G. at UIUC{\textquoteright}s center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. We thank the OIST DNA Sequencing Section, OIST Scientific Computing Section, and OIST Imaging Section for supporting different aspects of this work, and UIUC{\textquoteright}s Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology for access to filming equipment/MicroCT scanner. We thank Rumsa{\"i}s Blatrix, Brian Brown, Stefan Cover, Georg Fischer, Andrea Lucky, Joe Mac-Gown, Corrie Moreau, and Eli Sarnat for contributing specimens to the study, Sheila Patek for filming equipment, Dajia Ye for helping with video analysis, Explorama lodges and Frank Azorsa for assistance and providing resources during field work in Peru, and Jo Ann Tan for lab work. We thank Peter Wainwright who provided comments on an early draft. D.B.B. additionally thanks Patricia A. Gowaty and Stephen P. Hubbell for advice and support. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2021 Booher et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.",
year = "2021",
month = mar,
day = "2",
doi = "10.1371/journal.pbio.3001031",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "19",
journal = "PLoS biology",
issn = "1544-9173",
publisher = "Public Library of Science",
number = "3",
}