Breeding Patterns and Population Genetics of Eastern Subterranean Termites Reticulitermes flavipes in Urban Environment of Nebraska, United States

Majid, Amran Ab.; Kamble, Shripat T.; Chen, Hong

doi:10.13102/sociobiology.v65i3.2821

Cited by 6 publications

(8 citation statements)

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“…This is the first report of this pattern of colonies of different family structure at developed vs. undeveloped sites. This stands in contrast to two studies in Nebraska on undeveloped (Ab Majid et al, 2013) and developed (Ab Majid et al, 2018) sites that found no extended families at either site but generally more simple families at developed sites compared to mixed families on undeveloped sites. However, this study of undeveloped sites in Nebraska represents a high outlier in the percent of mixed families (Table 3) and has a small sample size (n = 8).…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 99%

“…Comparison of family structure types and inbreeding coefficients to other studies. Results from this study are shaded gray (modified from Vargo and Husseneder 2009, additional data from: Ab Majid et al 2013, Perdereau et al 2015, and Ab Majid et al 2018.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Similarly, family structure was not found to be different in urban compared to rural areas for Reticulitermes in the eastern USA (Vargo & Husseneder, 2009). In Nebraska, there were more simple families of R. flavipes in developed sites compared to undeveloped sites that had more mixed families (Ab Majid et al, 2013;Ab Majid et al, 2018).…”

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confidence: 92%

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Colony Breeding Structure of Reticulitermes (Isoptera: Rhinotermitidae) in Northwest Arkansas

et al. 2019

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Termites, as social insects, have a complicated life cycle in which the colony breeding structure, that is the number of and origin of reproductives in a colony, can vary in relation to age and environmental factors. In this study, we used genetic methods to characterize the breeding structure of three species of Reticulitermes from three sites in northwest Arkansas and compared two habitats: undeveloped, forested sites and developed, agricultural sites. We found 57.1% of R. flavipes (Kollar) in northwest Arkansas (n = 28) were simple families, 39.3% were extended families and 3.6% were mixed families. Similarly, for R. hageni Banks (n = 23), we found 58.3% simple families, 33.3% extended families, and 8.3% mixed families. All of the R. virginicus (Banks) samples (n = 5) were simple families. For R. flavipes and R. hageni, the percentage of extended families is intermediate to southeastern and northern USA populations, corresponding to the intermediate seasonality and climate in Arkansas. The level of inbreeding in Arkansas, estimated via FIT, was relatively high and similar to northern populations of Reticulitermes. There were significantly more extended family colonies at the developed site compared to the two undeveloped sites which contained more simple family colonies. This difference may occur as a strategy to cope with sparse resources in urban environments or as a consequence of different abiotic factors.

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Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Colony Breeding Structure of Reticulitermes (Isoptera: Rhinotermitidae) in Northwest Arkansas

et al. 2019

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“…In this study, we aimed to determine whether natural levels of genetic diversity affect the susceptibility of R. flavipes to pathogens. We sampled termite workers from mature colonies across eight sites distributed throughout four states in the eastern US, where this species exhibits variation in the proportion of family types and the level of within‐colony inbreeding found within populations (Bulmer et al., 2001; DeHeer & Kamble, 2008; Jenkins et al., 1999; Majid et al., 2018; Vargo et al., 2013). To assess whether genetically diverse colonies had better survival toward diverse pathogens, we challenged groups of workers from each colony with two strains of a fungal pathogen, one “local” strain present in the soil surrounding sampled colonies and another “naïve” strain, collected outside the range of this species.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Natural variation in colony inbreeding does not influence susceptibility to a fungal pathogen in a termite

Aguero

Eyer

Martin

et al. 2021

Ecology and Evolution

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“…Colony merging occurs naturally in R. flavipes [68][69][70][71][72] and this species shows a lack of intercolonial aggression in laboratory assays 73,74 . In this study, we investigated whether the increased group diversity through colony merging benefits social immunity and pathogen resistance in R. flavipes.…”

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Increased genetic diversity from colony merging in termites does not improve survival against a fungal pathogen

Aguero

Eyer

Vargo

2020

Sci Rep

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in some species of social insects the increased genetic diversity from having multiple breeders in a colony has been shown to improve pathogen resistance. termite species typically found colonies from single mated pairs and therefore may lack the flexibility to buffer pathogen pressure with increased genetic diversity by varying the initial number of reproductives. However, they can later increase group diversity through colony merging, resulting in a genetically diverse, yet cohesive, workforce. in this study, we investigate whether the increased group diversity from colony fusion benefits social immunity in the subterranean termite Reticulitermes flavipes. We confirm previous findings that colonies of R. flavipes will readily merge and we show that workers will equally groom nestmates and non-nestmates after merging. Despite this, the survival of these merged colonies was not improved after exposure to a fungal pathogen, but instead leveled to that of the more susceptible or the more resistant colony. our study brings little support to the hypothesis that colony fusion may improve immunity through an increase of genetic diversity in R. flavipes. Instead, we find that following exposure to a lethal pathogen, one colony is heavily influential to the entire group's survival after merging. Social insects are among the most abundant and ecologically successful species 1. Their success is inextricably linked to their division of labor where workers engage in different tasks to benefit one or a few reproductives at the expense of their own reproduction. The low number of reproductives in colonies of most species results in high relatedness among nestmate workers, elevating indirect fitness benefits 2. Paradoxically, their social life also entails severe costs, as high worker densities, high relatedness, and closed nests strongly increase the chance of pathogen transmission, which would suggest that these species are vulnerable to disease outbreaks 3. Owing to such pathogenic pressure, social insects have evolved social immunity, whereby individual immune functions and behaviors collectively provide colony-wide disease protection 4-6. Social immunity includes self/allogrooming 7-14 , nest hygiene 15-22 , removal of diseased individuals 23-26 and the use of antimicrobial compounds either produced by individuals or from materials incorporated into the nest 27-38. These diverse immune strategies have undoubtedly reduced the costs of social living, facilitating the success of social insects. Colony resistance to pathogens is also associated with within-colony genetic diversity, as genetically distinct individuals may vary in their susceptibility to different disease strains 39-45. Therefore, a mix of distinct genotypes within a colony interferes with genotype x genotype interactions, such that a pathogen able to infect one genotype may fail to transmit to new hosts if it encounters host genotypes that it cannot infect. Consequently, a genetically diverse colony may reduce the overall spread of a pathogen. Although variatio...

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Breeding Patterns and Population Genetics of Eastern Subterranean Termites Reticulitermes flavipes in Urban Environment of Nebraska, United States

Cited by 6 publications

References 44 publications

Colony Breeding Structure of Reticulitermes (Isoptera: Rhinotermitidae) in Northwest Arkansas

Colony Breeding Structure of Reticulitermes (Isoptera: Rhinotermitidae) in Northwest Arkansas

Natural variation in colony inbreeding does not influence susceptibility to a fungal pathogen in a termite

Increased genetic diversity from colony merging in termites does not improve survival against a fungal pathogen

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