Research from the Hunt Lab

Supergenes and alternative phenotypes

In the fire ant Solenopsis invicta, monogyne colonies with a single reproductive queen and polygyne colonies with multiple reproductive queens are genetically differentiated by a large region of several inversions on a "social chromosome." This region contains hundreds of genes, but is referred to as a "supergene" because it is inherited essentially as a single unit and does not exchange genetic material with the ancestral form of the chromosome. Supergenes have been implicated in the origin and maintenance of alternative phenotypes in a growing number of animal taxa. We are interested in understanding how chromosomal rearrangements, such as inversions, influence complex traits through altered gene regulatory networks between distinct forms of a supergene. 

Selected Publications:

The fire ant social chromosome exerts a major influence on genome regulation (2025 Molecular Biology & Evolution)

Molecular underpinnings of plasticity and supergene-mediated polymorphism in fire ant queens (2025 Journal of Evolutionary Biology)

Biased social chromosome transmission in males of the fire ant Solenopsis invicta (2025 G3 Genes|Genomes|Genetics)

Direct and indirect genetic effects of a social supergene (2023 Molecular Ecology)

Simple inheritance, complex regulation: Supergene‐mediated fire ant queen polymorphism (2020 Molecular Ecology)

Insect epigenetics and gene regulation

Epigenetic information consists of alterations to the structure of DNA and associated histone proteins. Epigenetic information is transmissable across cell divisions and fundamentally affects gene activity. We are interested in how epigenetic information, including DNA methylation and chromatin structure, affects gene regulation to influence insect form and function.

Selected Publications:

The fire ant social chromosome exerts a major influence on genome regulation (2025 Molecular Biology & Evolution)

A plant virus differentially alters DNA methylation in two cryptic species of a hemipteran vector (2024 npj Viruses)

Pest status, molecular evolution, and epigenetic factors derived from the genome assembly of Frankliniella fusca, a thysanopteran phytovirus vector (2023 BMC Genomics)

Epigenetics in insects: genome regulation and the generation of phenotypic diversity (2019 Annual Review of Entomology)

Developmental DNA methyltransferase expression in the fire ant Solenopsis invicta (2018 Insect Science)

The effect of maternal care on gene expression and DNA methylation in a subsocial bee (2018 Nature Communications)

Variation in DNA methylation is not consistently reflected by sociality in Hymenoptera (2017 Genome Biology & Evolution)