Miyakawa Misato O, Miyakawa Hitoshi
Center for Bioscience Research and Education, Utsunomiya University;
J Vis Exp. 2018 Oct 5(140):58521. doi: 10.3791/58521.
The genetic and molecular components of the sex-determination cascade have been extensively studied in the honeybee, Apis mellifera, a hymenopteran model organism. However, little is known about the sex-determination mechanisms found in other non-model hymenopteran taxa, such as ants. Because of the complex nature of the life cycles that have evolved in hymenopteran species, it is difficult to maintain and conduct experimental crosses between these organisms in the laboratory. Here, we describe the methods for conducting inbreeding crosses and for evaluating the success of those crosses in ant Vollenhovia emeryi. Inducing inbreeding in the laboratory using V. emeryi, is relatively simple because of the unique biology of the species. Specifically, this species produces androgenetic males, and female reproductives exhibit wing polymorphism, which simplifies identification of the phenotypes in genetic crosses. In addition, evaluating the success of inbreeding is straightforward as males can be produced continuously by inbreeding crosses, while normal males only appear during a well-defined reproductive season in the field. Our protocol allow for using V. emeryi as a model to investigate the genetic and molecular basis of the sex determination system in ant species.
性别决定级联反应的遗传和分子成分已在蜜蜂（Apis mellifera）中得到广泛研究，蜜蜂是一种膜翅目模式生物。然而，对于其他非模式膜翅目类群，如蚂蚁中发现的性别决定机制却知之甚少。由于膜翅目物种进化出的生命周期具有复杂性，在实验室中维持并进行这些生物之间的实验杂交很困难。在此，我们描述了在蚂蚁Vollenhovia emeryi中进行近亲繁殖杂交以及评估这些杂交成功率的方法。利用V. emeryi在实验室中诱导近亲繁殖相对简单，这是由于该物种独特的生物学特性。具体而言，该物种产生雄核发育的雄性个体，且雌性生殖个体表现出翅多态性，这简化了遗传杂交中表型的鉴定。此外，评估近亲繁殖的成功率很直接，因为通过近亲繁殖杂交可以持续产生雄性个体，而正常雄性个体仅在野外明确的繁殖季节出现。我们的方案使得能够将V. emeryi用作模型来研究蚂蚁物种性别决定系统的遗传和分子基础。
