Lecocq Thomas, Gérard Maxence, Maebe Kevin, Brasero Nicolas, Dehon Lauren, Smagghe Guy, Valterová Irena, De Meulemeester Thibaut, Rasmont Pierre, Michez Denis
Laboratory of Zoology, Research Institute of Biosciences, University of Mons, Mons, France.
Research Unit Animal and Functionalities of Animal Products (URAFPA), University of Lorraine - INRA, 2 Avenue de la Forêt de Haye, BP 172, F-54505, Vandoeuvre-lès-Nancy, France.
Insect Sci. 2017 Aug;24(4):623-630. doi: 10.1111/1744-7917.12332. Epub 2016 Jun 7.
The current bumblebee decline leads to inbreeding in populations that fosters a loss of allelic diversity and diploid male production. As diploid males are viable and their offspring are sterile, bumblebee populations can quickly fall in a vortex of extinction. In this article, we investigate for the first time a potential premating mechanism through a major chemical reproductive trait (male cephalic labial gland secretions) that could prevent monandrous virgin queens from mating with diploid males. We focus our study on the cephalic labial gland secretions of diploid and haploid males of Bombus terrestris (L.). Contrary to initial expectations, our results do not show any significant differentiation of cephalic labial gland secretions between diploid and haploid specimens. Queens seem therefore to be unable to avoid mating with diploid males based on their compositions of cephalic labial gland secretions. This suggests that the vortex of extinction of diploid males could not be stopped through premating avoidance based on the cephalic labial gland secretions but other mechanisms could avoid mating between diploid males and queens.
当前大黄蜂数量的减少导致种群内近亲繁殖，进而造成等位基因多样性丧失和二倍体雄蜂产生。由于二倍体雄蜂能够存活但其后代不育，大黄蜂种群可能会迅速陷入灭绝的漩涡。在本文中，我们首次通过一种主要的化学繁殖特性（雄性头部唇腺分泌物）来研究一种潜在的交配前机制，该机制可能会阻止单配型的未交配蜂王与二倍体雄蜂交配。我们将研究重点放在了熊蜂（Bombus terrestris (L.)）二倍体和单倍体雄蜂的头部唇腺分泌物上。与最初的预期相反，我们的结果并未显示二倍体和单倍体样本的头部唇腺分泌物存在任何显著差异。因此，蜂王似乎无法根据头部唇腺分泌物的成分来避免与二倍体雄蜂交配。这表明，基于头部唇腺分泌物的交配前回避无法阻止二倍体雄蜂的灭绝漩涡，但其他机制可能会避免二倍体雄蜂与蜂王之间的交配。
