Temporal genetic structure of a drone congregation area of the giant Asian honeybee ( Apis dorsata )
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SH ORT COMMUNI CATIO N
F. B. Kraus . N. Koeniger . S. Tingek . R. F. A. Moritz
Temporal genetic structure of a drone congregation area of the giant Asian honeybee (Apis dorsata)
Received: 3 May 2005 / Accepted: 10 August 2005 / Published online: 27 September 2005 # Springer-Verlag 2005
Abstract The giant Asian honeybee (Apis dorsata), like all other members of the genus Apis, has a complex mating system in which the queens and males (drones) mate at spatially defined drone congregation areas (DCAs). Here, we studied the temporal genetic structure of a DCA of A. dorsata over an 8-day time window by the genotyping of sampled drones with microsatellite markers. Analysis of the genotypic data revealed a significant genetic differentiation between 3 sampling days and indicated that the DCA was used by at least two subpopulations at all days in varying proportions. The estimation of the number of colonies which used the DCA ranged between 20 and 40 colonies per subpopulation, depending on the estimation procedure and population. The overall effective population size was estimated as high as Ne=140. The DCA seems to counteract known tendencies of A. dorsata for inbreeding within colony aggregations by facilitating gene flow among subpopulations and increasing the effective population size. F. B. Kraus (*) Departamento Entomología Tropical, El Colegio de la Frontera Sur, Carretera Antiguo Aeropuerto Km. 2.5, C.P. 30700, Tapachula, Chiapas, Mexico e-mail: [email protected] Tel.: +52-962-6289800 Fax: +52-962-6289806 N. Koeniger Institut für Bienenkunde, Johann-Wolfgang-Goethe Universität Frankfurt/M, Karl-von-Frisch-Weg 2, 6347 Oberursel/Ts, Germany S. Tingek Agricultural Research Station Tenom, P.O. Box 197, 89908, Tenom, Sabah, Malaysia R. F. A. Moritz Institut für Zoologie, Martin Luther Universität Halle-Wittenberg, Kröllwitzer Str 44, 06099 Halle/Saale, Germany
Introduction Honeybees (genus Apis) have a complex mating system in which the drones and virgin queens meet at so-called drone congregation areas (DCAs) to mate in mid-air [14]. The queens store the semen obtained from these matings in their spermatheca throughout their lifetime, resulting in genetically highly complex colony relatedness structures with up to 100 different half-sister subfamilies in the colony [7, 18]. In addition, like in the other Apis species, the queens of A. dorsata conduct several mating flights on subsequent days at the beginning of their lives [16]. Obviously, large numbers of males are required in the mating season for these high mating frequencies. Typically, colonies can produce thousands of drones but only few queens per mating season. This mating system, in which the virgin queens have to leave their nest to fly to the DCAs, holds a considerable risk for both the individual queen and the colony, since queens can die on these mating flights [15]. If the virgin queen is lost, emergency queen rearing is usually no longer possible because the remaining female diploid brood is too old and the colony eventually dies. One explanat
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