法国蒙彼利埃大学J. Romiguier课题组发现了通过专性跨物种克隆实现一种母蚁孕育两个物种。这一研究成果发表在2025年9月3日出版的国际学术期刊《自然》上。

研究团队在Messor ibericthem中报道了这种常态的转变，Messor ibericthem是一种来自两个不同物种的个体。在这个生命周期中，雌性会克隆其他物种的雄性，因为它们需要自己的精子来繁殖工种。因此，来自同一母亲的雄性表现出不同的基因组和形态，因为它们属于超过500万年前。这一系统的进化史表现为性寄生，并演变为跨物种克隆的自然案例，结果通过不同物种的卵子克隆出了一个只有雄性的谱系。该研究团队把表现出这种繁殖模式的雌性称为异种生殖，这意味着它们在生命周期中会生育其他物种。

研究人员表示，活生物体被认为能产生相同物种的后代。

附：英文原文

Title: One mother for two species via obligate cross-species cloning in ants

Author: Juv, Y., Lutrat, C., Ha, A., Weyna, A., Lauroua, E., Afonso Silva, A. C., Roux, C., Schifani, E., Galkowski, C., Lebas, C., Allio, R., Stoyanov, I., Galtier, N., Schlick-Steiner, B. C., Steiner, F. M., Baas, D., Kaufmann, B., Romiguier, J.

Issue&Volume: 2025-09-03

Abstract: Living organisms are assumed to produce same-species offspring1,2. Here, we report a shift from this norm in Messor ibericus, an ant that lays individuals from two distinct species. In this life cycle, females must clone males of another species because they require their sperm to produce the worker caste. As a result, males from the same mother exhibit distinct genomes and morphologies, as they belong to species that diverged over 5million years ago. The evolutionary history of this system appears as sexual parasitism3 that evolved into a natural case of cross-species cloning4,5, resulting in the maintenance of a male-only lineage cloned through distinct species’ ova. We term females exhibiting this reproductive mode as xenoparous, meaning they give birth to other species as part of their life cycle.

DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-09425-w

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09425-w