Colony fusion causes within-colony variation in a parthenogenetic ant

Kellner, Katrin; Barth, M. Benjamin; Heinze, Juergen

doi:10.1007/s00265-009-0891-6

Cited by 24 publications

(44 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…This is in accordance with the frequent genetic uniformity of field colonies (Hartmann et al 2005;Schilder et al 1999b) and population genetic analyses (Kellner et al 2010), which reveal a population structure with a heterozygote excess, as is typical for clonal diploid organisms without recombination (Balloux et al 2003).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 59%

“…The scattered occurrence of isolated, homozygous workers among heterozygous nestmates in field colonies also suggests infrequent recombination, but field data in general need to be interpreted with caution. The history of field colonies is unknown and the presence of homozygous individuals amongst heterozygous nestmates might occasionally be a consequence of alternative mechanisms, such as colony fusion, the adoption of unrelated individuals workers and the replacement of reproductives by non-relatives (Kellner et al 2010). In any case, comparative analyses show that most individuals from thelytokous populations on the Caribbean islands are heterozygous at least at one of the five studied microsatellite loci.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

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Mechanism of facultative parthenogenesis in the ant Platythyrea punctata

Kellner

Heınze

2010

Evol Ecol

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Thelytokous parthenogenesis, the production of diploid female offspring from unfertilized eggs, can be caused by several cytological mechanisms, which have a different impact on the genetic variation on the offspring. The ponerine ant Platythyrea punctata is widely distributed throughout the Caribbean Islands and Central America and exhibits facultative parthenogenesis. Workers in many field colonies from the Caribbean Islands have identical multilocus genotypes and are thus probably clonal, but the occurrence of males makes an ameiotic mechanism of thelytoky unlikely. To clarify the details of thelytoky in this species we compared the multilocus genotypes of mothers and their offspring in experimental colonies and analyzed the genotypes of haploid and diploid males. Additionally, we screened a large number of field colonies from thelytokous populations for the occurrence of recombination events. According to these data, automixis with central fusion and a reduced recombination rate is the most likely mechanism of thelytoky, as in the Cape honeybee and the ant Cataglyphis cursor.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 59%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Mechanism of facultative parthenogenesis in the ant Platythyrea punctata

Kellner

Heınze

2010

Evol Ecol

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“…Intracolonial mtDNA polymorphism indicates that alien colonies of C. venustula may fuse or that alien queens or workers may be adopted, as suggested for C. obscurior (Kinomura and Yamauchi, 1987). The co-occurrence of workers with different haplotypes has previously been demonstrated in a few other ants (e.g., Stille and Stille, 1992;Carew et al, 1997;Tay et al, 1997) and there is more and more direct and indirect evidence for the evolutionary puzzling occurrence of colony fusion and the adoption of alien females (e.g., Foitzik and Heinze, 2004;Johns et al, 2009;Kellner et al, 2010). Although our collecting data and dissection of queens from laboratory colonies (A.S., unpubl.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 86%

Wingless and intermorphic males in the ant Cardiocondyla venustula

et al. 2012

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The ant genus Cardiocondyla is characterized by a pronounced male diphenism with wingless fighter males and winged disperser males. Winged males have been lost convergently in at least two species-rich clades. Here, we describe the morphological variability of males of C. venustula from uThukela valley, South Africa. Winged males appear to be absent from this species. However, in addition to wingless ("ergatoid") males with widely fused thoracic sutures and without ocelli, "intermorphic" males exist that combine the typical morphology of wingless males with characteristics of winged males, e.g., more pronounced thoracic sutures, rudimentary ocelli, and vestigial wings. Similar "intermorphic" males have previously been described from one of several genetically distinct lineages of the Southeast Asian "C. kagutsuchi" complex .To determine whether male morphology is associated with distinct clades also in C. venustula, we sequenced a 631 bp fragment of mitochondrial DNA of workers from 13 colonies. We found six haplotypes with a sequence variation of up to 5.7%. Intermorphic and wingless males did not appear to be associated with a particular of these lineages and within colonies showed the same sequence.Interestingly, two colonies contained workers with different haplotypes, suggesting the occasional migration of queens and / or workers between colonies.Keywords Cardiocondyla venustula · male diphenism · ergatoid male · intracolony mtDNA variation 3

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“…In the African army ant, Dorylus molestus , colonies frequently fused with neighbor colonies after queen loss (Kronauer et al 2010). Although P. punctatus does not have queens, different colonies show high hostility to each other (Tsuji 1988b).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Colony Fusion in a Parthenogenetic Ant,Pristomyrmexpunctatus

Satow

Satoh

Hirota

2013

Journal of Insect Science

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In the ant Pristomyrmex punctatus Smith (Hymenoptera: Formicidae), all young workers lay a small number of eggs parthenogenetically. Some colonies consist of monoclonal individuals that provide high inclusive fitness, according to the kin selection theory. However, in some populations, a majority of the colonies contain multiple lineages. Intracolonial genetic variation of parthenogenetic ants cannot be explained by the multiple mating of single founderesses or by the foundation of a colony by multiple foundresses, which are the usual causes of genetically diverse colonies in social insects. Here, we hypothesized that the fusion of established colonies might facilitate the formation of multiclonal colonies. Colony fusion decreases indirect benefits because of the reduction in intracolonial relatedness. However, when suitable nesting places for overwintering are scarce, colony fusion provides a strategy for the survival of colonies. Here, ants derived from different colonies were allowed to encounter one another in a container with just one nesting place. Initially, high aggression was observed; however, after several days, no aggression was observed and the ants shared the nest. When the fused colonies were allowed to transfer to two alternative nests, ants from different colonies occupied the same nest. This study highlights the importance of limiting the number of nesting places in order to understand the genetic diversity of parthenogenetic ant colonies.

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Colony fusion causes within-colony variation in a parthenogenetic ant

Cited by 24 publications

References 39 publications

Mechanism of facultative parthenogenesis in the ant Platythyrea punctata

Mechanism of facultative parthenogenesis in the ant Platythyrea punctata

Wingless and intermorphic males in the ant Cardiocondyla venustula

Colony Fusion in a Parthenogenetic Ant,Pristomyrmexpunctatus

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