Male fitness of honeybee colonies (Apis mellifera L.)

Honeybees (Apis mellifera L.) have an extreme polyandrous mating system. Worker offspring of 19 naturally mated queens was genotyped with DNA microsatellites, to estimate male reproductive success of 16 drone producing colonies. This allowed for estimating the male mating success on both the colony...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of evolutionary biology 2003-09, Vol.16 (5), p.914-920
Main Authors: Kraus, F. B., Neumann, P., Scharpenberg, H., Van Praagh, J., Moritz, R. F. A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Apis mellifera
Bees - genetics
Biological Evolution
DNA - genetics
Female
fitness
Genotype
honeybee
Male
male reproductive success
selection
Selection, Genetic
Sexual Behavior, Animal
Social Behavior
social insect colonies
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Summary:Honeybees (Apis mellifera L.) have an extreme polyandrous mating system. Worker offspring of 19 naturally mated queens was genotyped with DNA microsatellites, to estimate male reproductive success of 16 drone producing colonies. This allowed for estimating the male mating success on both the colony level and the level of individual drones. The experiment was conducted in a closed population on an isolated island to exclude interferences of drones from unknown colonies. Although all colonies had produced similar numbers of drones, differences among the colonies in male mating success exceeded one order of magnitude. These differences were enhanced by the siring success of individual drones within the offspring of mated queens. The siring success of individual drones was correlated with the mating frequency at the colony level. Thus more successful colonies not only produced drones with a higher chance of mating, but also with a significantly higher proportion of offspring sired than drones from less successful colonies. Although the life cycle of honeybee colonies is very female centred, the male reproductive success appears to be a major driver of natural selection in honeybees.
ISSN:1010-061X
1420-9101
DOI:10.1046/j.1420-9101.2003.00593.x