Relatedness among honeybees (Apis mellifera) of a drone congregation

The honeybee (Apis mellifera) queen mates during nuptial flights, in the so-called drone congregation area where many males from surrounding colonies gather. Using 20 highly polymorphic microsatellite loci, we studied a sample of 142 drones captured in a congregation close to Oberursel (Germany). A...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Proceedings of the Royal Society. B, Biological sciences Biological sciences, 1998-10, Vol.265 (1409), p.2009-2014
Main Authors: Baudry, E., Solignac, M., Garnery, L., Gries, M., Cornuet, J., Koeniger, N.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Alleles
Apis mellifera
Drone honey bees
Drone insects
Genetic loci
Honey bee colonies
Honey bees
Honeybee
Insect colonies
Insect genetics
Lod score
Lod Scores
Mating Behaviour
Microsatellites
Panmixis
Queen honey bees
Relatedness
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Summary:The honeybee (Apis mellifera) queen mates during nuptial flights, in the so-called drone congregation area where many males from surrounding colonies gather. Using 20 highly polymorphic microsatellite loci, we studied a sample of 142 drones captured in a congregation close to Oberursel (Germany). A parentage test based on lod score showed that this sample contained one group of four brothers, six groups of three brothers, 20 groups of two brothers and 80 singletons. These values are very close to a Poisson distribution. Therefore, colonies were apparently equally represented in the drone congregation, and calculations showed that the congregation comprised males that originated from about 240 different colonies. This figure is surprisingly high. Considering the density of colonies around the congregation area and the average flight range of males, it suggests that most colonies within the recruitment perimeter delegated drones to the congregation with an equal probability, resulting in an almost perfect panmixis. Consequently, the relatedness between a queen and her mates, and hence the inbreeding coefficient of the progeny, should be minimized. The relatedness among the drones mated to the same queen is also very low, maximizing the genetic diversity among the different patrilines of a colony.
ISSN:0962-8452
1471-2954
DOI:10.1098/rspb.1998.0533