Dyson Carl J, Crossley Henry G, Ray Charles H, Goodisman Michael A D
School of Biological Sciences Georgia Institute of Technology Atlanta Georgia USA.
Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology Auburn University Auburn Alabama USA.
Ecol Evol. 2022 Feb 10;12(2):e8569. doi: 10.1002/ece3.8569. eCollection 2022 Feb.
Many social species show variation in their social structure in response to different environmental conditions. For example, colonies of the yellowjacket wasp are typically headed by a single reproductive queen and survive for only a single season. However, in warmer climates, colonies sometimes persist for multiple years and can grow to extremely large size. We used genetic markers to understand patterns of reproduction and recruitment within these perennial colonies. We genotyped workers, pre-reproductive queens, and males from perennial colonies in the southeastern United States at 10 polymorphic microsatellite loci and one mitochondrial DNA locus. We found that from perennial nests were produced by multiple reproductives, in contrast to typical annual colonies. Relatedness of nestmates from perennial colonies was significantly lower than relatedness of nestmates from annual colonies. Our analyses of mitochondrial DNA indicated that most perennial colonies represented semiclosed systems whereby all individuals belonged to a single matriline despite the presence of multiple reproductive females. However, new queens recruited into perennial colonies apparently mated with non-nestmate males. Notably, perennial and annual colonies did not show significant genetic differences, supporting the hypothesis that perennial colony formation represents an instance of social plasticity. Overall, our results indicate that perennial colonies show substantial changes to their social biology compared to typical annual colonies and demonstrate variation in social behaviors in highly social species.
许多社会性物种会根据不同的环境条件，在其社会结构上表现出差异。例如，黄胡蜂的蜂群通常由一只具有繁殖能力的蜂王领导，并且仅存活一个季节。然而，在气候较温暖的地区，蜂群有时会持续存在多年，并且能够发展到极大的规模。我们使用基因标记来了解这些多年生蜂群中的繁殖和招募模式。我们对美国东南部多年生蜂群中的工蜂、未生殖的蜂王和雄蜂，在10个多态性微卫星位点和1个线粒体DNA位点进行了基因分型。我们发现，与典型的一年生蜂群不同，多年生蜂巢的后代由多个生殖个体产生。多年生蜂群中巢友之间的亲缘关系显著低于一年生蜂群中巢友之间的亲缘关系。我们对线粒体DNA的分析表明，尽管存在多个具有繁殖能力的雌性个体，但大多数多年生蜂群代表半封闭系统，即所有个体都属于单一母系。然而，新招募到多年生蜂群中的蜂王显然与非巢友雄蜂交配。值得注意的是，多年生蜂群和一年生蜂群没有表现出显著的遗传差异，这支持了多年生蜂群形成代表社会可塑性实例的假设。总体而言，我们的结果表明，与典型的一年生蜂群相比，多年生蜂群在其社会生物学方面表现出实质性变化，并证明了高度社会性物种中社会行为的差异。
