Behaviour and Genetics of Social Insects Laboratory, School of Biological Sciences, University of Sydney, Macleay A12, Science Road, Sydney, NSW, 2006, Australia.
Honeybee Research Section, ARC-Plant Protection Research Institute, Private Bag X5017, Stellenbosch, 7599, South Africa.
Mol Ecol. 2013 Aug;22(16):4298-4306. doi: 10.1111/mec.12387. Epub 2013 Jul 29.
Kin selection theory predicts that honeybee (Apis mellifera) workers should largely refrain from producing their own offspring, as the workers collectively have higher inclusive fitness if they rear the sons of their mother, the queen. Studies that have quantified levels of ovary activation and reproduction among workers have largely supported this prediction. We sampled pre-emergent male pupae and adult workers from seven colonies at regular intervals throughout the reproductive part of the season. We show that the overall contribution of workers to male (drone) production is 4.2%, nearly 40 times higher than is generally reported, and is highest during reproductive swarming, when an average of 6.2% of the males genotyped are worker-produced. Similarly, workers in our samples were 100 times more likely to have active ovaries than previously assumed. Worker reproduction is seasonally influenced and peaks when colonies are rearing new queens. Not all worker subfamilies contribute equally to reproduction. Instead, certain subfamilies are massively over-represented in drone brood. By laying eggs within the period in which many colonies produce virgin queens, these rare worker subfamilies increase their direct fitness via their well-timed sons.
亲缘选择理论预测，蜜蜂（Apis mellifera）工蜂应该主要避免生育自己的后代，因为如果它们养育蜂王的儿子，即雄蜂，那么工蜂的整体适合度会更高。已经量化了工蜂卵巢激活和繁殖水平的研究在很大程度上支持了这一预测。我们在繁殖季节的不同时间间隔内，从七个蜂群中抽取了预出现的雄性蛹和成年工蜂样本。我们发现，工蜂对雄性（雄蜂）生产的总体贡献为 4.2%，几乎比普遍报道的高出 40 倍，在生殖分蜂期间最高，在此期间，平均有 6.2%的雄性经基因分型是工蜂产生的。同样，与之前的假设相比，我们样本中的工蜂有卵巢活性的可能性高出 100 倍。工蜂繁殖受季节性影响，在蜂群饲养新蜂王时达到高峰。并非所有工蜂亚科都同等程度地参与繁殖。相反，某些亚科在雄蜂群体中大量过度代表。通过在许多蜂群产生处女王的时期内产卵，这些罕见的工蜂亚科通过其时机恰到好处的儿子增加了它们的直接适应度。
