Naturwissenschaften
Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA.
Published: May 2013
Kin selection theory predicts that in colonies of social Hymenoptera with multiply mated queens, workers should mutually inhibit ("police") worker reproduction, but that in colonies with singly mated queens, workers should favor rearing workers' sons instead of queens' sons. In line with these predictions, Mattila et al. (Curr Biol 22:2027-2031, 2012) documented increased ovary development among workers in colonies of honey bees with singly mated queens, suggesting that workers can detect and respond adaptively to queen mating frequency and raising the possibility that they facultative police. In a follow-up experiment, we test and reject the hypothesis that workers in single-patriline colonies prefer worker-derived males and are able to reproduce directly; we show that their eggs are policed as strongly as those of workers in colonies with multiply mated queens. Evidently, workers do not respond facultatively to a kin structure that favors relaxed policing and increased direct reproduction. These workers may instead be responding to a poor queen or preparing for possible queen loss.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00114-013-1025-6 | DOI Listing |
Sci Rep
January 2025
Centre for Ecology and Conservation, Faculty of Environment, Science & Economy, University of Exeter, Penryn Campus, Cornwall, TR10 9FE, UK.
Promiscuous females reduce male reproductive control. Males can attempt to monopolise access to these females, but distractions and sneaky rivals mean extra copulations cannot always be blocked. By mating first, males can obtain a headstart in sperm competition, but this may be negated by sperm storage and cryptic female choice mechanisms.
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December 2024
Department of Biology, Queen's University, Kingston, ON, Canada.
Genetic diversity can influence fitness components such as survival and reproductive success. Yet the association between genetic diversity and fitness based on neutral loci is sometime very weak and inconsistent, with relationships varying among taxa due to confounding effects of population demography and life history. Fitness-diversity relationships are likely to be stronger and more consistent for genes known to influence phenotypic traits, such as immunity-related genes, and may also depend on the genetic differences between breeding partners.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFmSphere
December 2024
Department of Biology, University of North Carolina, Greensboro, North Carolina, USA.
Unlabelled: Honey bees are the third most economically important agricultural animal in the world due to their role as pollinators. Honey bee pollination services and all hive duties are performed by female workers, while the male drones have one job to mate and share their genetics with a virgin queen from another colony. Thus, drone fitness is directly tied to queen success and colony survival, yet they have been severely understudied compared to their female counterparts.
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December 2024
Evolution, Genomes, Behaviour and Ecology, IDEEV, Université Paris-Saclay, CNRS, IRD, 12 Route 128, 91190 Gif-sur-Yvette, France.
Honeybees (genus: Apis) use a plethora of pheromones for intraspecific communication. The primary compound produced by the queen's mandibular glands, 9-ODA, is involved in mating in all Apis species. It is the ligand of the most highly expressed olfactory receptor in males of : OR11.
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