This information is not only important because it can now help scientists try to understand how the
differences between queen and worker may arise through interactions among
genes, but also for the evolution of
ants, and
in the evolution of
gene expression more generally.
The researchers» results suggest that structural and functional
differences between queens and workers result from the differential
expression of evolutionary conserved sets of
genes, or
genes that are basically expressed
in the same manner throughout evolution among all
ant species.