Genetic Analysis of Population Structure and Reproductive Mode of the Termite Reticulitermes chinensis Snyder

Abstract

The subterranean termite Reticulitermes chinensis Snyder is an important pest of trees and buildings in China. Here, we characterized genetic structure and reproductive modes of R. chinensis from China for the first time. A total of 1,875 workers from 75 collection sites in Huanggang, Changsha and Chongqing cities were genotyped at eight microsatellite loci. Analysis of genetic clusters showed two subpopulations in Chongqing city. The Huanggang population showed a uniform genetic pattern and was separated from the other populations by the largest genetic distances (F ST: 0.17–0.20). In contrast, smaller genetic distances (F ST: 0.05–0.12) separated Changsha, Chongqing-1 and Chongqing-2 populations. Chongqing-1 was the only population showing a genetic bottleneck. Isolation by distance among colonies in the Huanggang population indicated limited alate dispersal or colony budding. Lack of isolation by distance among colonies within the populations of Changsha, Chongqing-1 and Chongqing-2, suggested long-range dispersal by alates and/or human-mediated transport. Overall, extended family colonies (73.91%) were predominant in all four populations, followed by simple (20.29%), and mixed family colonies (5.80%). Most simple families were headed by inbred related reproductive pairs in the Changsha population, while most simple families in the Chongqing-1 population were headed by outbred unrelated pairs. Simple families in the Huanggang population were a mixture of colonies headed by outbred or inbred reproductive pairs. The sample size of simple families in the Chongqing-2 population was too small to yield significant results. Extended families in all four populations were headed on the average by ≤10 neotenics. Mixed families likely originated from pleometrosis. Presence of heterozygote genotypes showed that all neotenic reproductives collected in addition from five field colonies in Wuhan city were sexually produced, suggesting that these colonies did not undergo parthenogenesis. This study contributes to better understanding of the variance of genetic structure and reproductive mode in the genus Reticulitermes.

Interspecific Hybridization between the Two Sympatric Termite Reticulitermes Species under Laboratory Conditions

“…A color marker was added to 5 -primers and all primers synthesized by Invitrogen Trading (Shanghai, China) Co., Ltd. GeneMapper v4.0 (Applied Biosystems, Foster City, CA, USA) and Peak Scanner v1.0 (Applied Biosystems, Foster City, CA, USA) were used for analysis. Both the R. flaviceps and R. chinensis are non-parthenogenetic species [15]. The offspring produced by sexual reproduction were diploid.…”

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

“…In China, Reticulitermes chinensis Snyder, an important pest of trees and buildings from the genus Reticulitermes were also genotyped at eight microsatellite loci. Analysis of genetic clusters showed that the two subpopulations in Chongqing city were headed by outbred unrelated pairs (Huang et al, 2013). Their study also showed that dispersal by primary reproductives was relatively limited due to the short range mating flight or due to the frequent colony reproduction.…”

Experimental verification and molecular basis of active immunization against fungal pathogens in termites

“…The subterranean termites Reticulitermes chinensis Snyder are widely distributed throughout China, causing serious damage to structures and forests and bringing huge economic losses 27 28 . In this study, we used R. chinensis as the test organism to determine whether termites employ active immunization to defend against the entomopathogenic fungus Metarhizium anisopliae by employing multi-level methods, combing iTRAQ LC-MS/MS technology with MRM assays to find immune proteins involved in the active immunization of R. chinensis .…”