Institute for Biology, Molecular Ecology Work Group, Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg Hoher Weg 4, 06122 Halle(Saale), Germany.
Ecol Evol. 2012 Jun;2(6):1304-11. doi: 10.1002/ece3.203.
Drone aggregations are a widespread phenomenon in many stingless bee species (Meliponini), but the ultimate and proximate causes for their formation are still not well understood. One adaptive explanation for this phenomenon is the avoidance of inbreeding, which is especially detrimental for stingless bees due to the combined effects of the complementary sex-determining system and the small effective population size caused by eusociality and monandry. We analyzed the temporal genetic dynamics of a drone aggregation of the stingless bee Scaptotrigona mexicana with microsatellite markers over a time window of four weeks. We estimated the drones of the aggregation to originate from a total of 55 colonies using sibship re-construction. There was no detectable temporal genetic differentiation or sub-structuring in the aggregation. Most important, we could exclude all colonies in close proximity of the aggregation as origin of the drones in the aggregation, implicating that they originate from more distant colonies. We conclude that the diverse genetic composition and the distant origin of the drones of the S. mexicana drone congregation provides an effective mechanism to avoid mating among close relatives.
蜂群聚集是许多无刺蜜蜂物种（Meliponini）中普遍存在的现象，但它们形成的最终和近因仍然不太清楚。对于这种现象的一个适应性解释是避免近亲繁殖，由于互补性别决定系统和由于社会性和单配性导致的小有效种群大小的综合影响，这对无刺蜜蜂尤其有害。我们使用微卫星标记在四周的时间窗口内分析了无刺蜜蜂 Scaptotrigona mexicana 的一个雄蜂聚集的时间遗传动态。我们使用亲缘关系重建估计聚集的雄蜂来自总共 55 个殖民地。聚集中没有可检测到的时间遗传分化或亚结构。最重要的是，我们可以排除聚集附近的所有殖民地作为聚集中雄蜂的起源，这表明它们来自更远的殖民地。我们得出结论，S. mexicana 雄蜂聚集的雄蜂的遗传组成的多样性和起源的遥远性提供了一种有效的机制来避免近亲交配。
