Influence of inbreeding in the early stages of artificially reared colonies of <i>Bombus terrestris</i>

Bortolotti, Laura; Fiorillo, Fabio; Zavatta, Laura; Rogatis, Anna De; Bogo, Gherardo

doi:10.1111/jen.12765

Cited by 7 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 49 publications

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“…Combining the genetic and productivity data in the B. hypnorum colonies reared from field-collected queens suggests that DMP decreased colony productivity (DMP colonies ( n = 5): mean n workers = 18, mean n gynes = 0, mean n males = 15; non-DMP colonies ( n = 32): mean n workers = 34, mean n gynes = 6, mean n males = 43). This suggestion is in line with previous findings in ants and bees [ 15 – 18 ], and exemplifies the fitness costs of matched matings in bumblebees. Such reductions in colony productivity may account for the lower DMP frequencies observed in mature, field-collected colonies than in queen-reared colonies ( figure 2 ), with smaller colonies being less likely to survive and be available for sampling, and support the assumption of sampling and/or survival bias in estimating DMP frequencies from field-collected colonies.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

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No severe genetic bottleneck in a rapidly range-expanding bumblebee pollinator

et al. 2021

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Genetic bottlenecks can limit the success of populations colonizing new ranges. However, successful colonizations can occur despite bottlenecks, a phenomenon known as the genetic paradox of invasion. Eusocial Hymenoptera such as bumblebees ( Bombus spp.) should be particularly vulnerable to genetic bottlenecks, since homozygosity at the sex-determining locus leads to costly diploid male production (DMP). The Tree Bumblebee ( Bombus hypnorum ) has rapidly colonized the UK since 2001 and has been highlighted as exemplifying the genetic paradox of invasion. Using microsatellite genotyping, combined with the first genetic estimates of DMP in UK B. hypnorum , we tested two alternative genetic hypotheses (‘bottleneck’ and ‘gene flow’ hypotheses) for B. hypnorum 's colonization of the UK. We found that the UK population has not undergone a recent severe genetic bottleneck and exhibits levels of genetic diversity falling between those of widespread and range-restricted Bombus species. Diploid males occurred in 15.4% of reared colonies, leading to an estimate of 21.5 alleles at the sex-determining locus. Overall, the findings show that this population is not bottlenecked, instead suggesting that it is experiencing continued gene flow from the continental European source population with only moderate loss of genetic diversity, and does not exemplify the genetic paradox of invasion.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

“…Accordingly, DMP reduces colony founding success and productivity in both ants and bumblebees (Bombus spp.) [15][16][17][18]. In addition, a high frequency of DMP represents a strong indicator of a genetic bottleneck [19,20].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

No severe genetic bottleneck in a rapidly range-expanding bumblebee pollinator

et al. 2021

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“…A certain degree of inbreeding, revealed by the presence of colonies with diploid males, has been found in some commercial bumblebee companies, resulting in a potential economic loss, as these colonies are often unsuitable for pollination (Maebe et al, 2014;Bortolotti et al, 2020). In these circumstances, geometric morphometrics with the support of a large database can represent a quick and inexpensive method for diploid male detection, which allows immediate identification and elimination of colonies producing diploid males.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In case of homozygosity at the sex locus, fertilized eggs develop into diploid males instead (G€ osterit, 2016), decreasing the worker force and the number of gynes. For this reason, the production of diploid males decreases colony growth, which represents a serious disadvantage for the colony itself and the entire population (Zayed & Packer, 2005;Bogo et al, 2018a;Bortolotti et al, 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How to get rid of diploid bumblebee males – variability in wing size and shape does not allow within‐colony ploidy discrimination

Bogo

Cejas

Rúa

et al. 2021

Entomologia Exp Applicata

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The bumblebee Bombus terrestris L. (Hymenoptera: Apidae) is an effective pollinator of both wild and cultivated plants and essential for the pollination of various important greenhouse crops. Because of its sex determination mechanism, homozygosity of the complementary sex determination (csd) locus due to inbreeding causes fertilized eggs to develop into diploid males, which represent a serious disadvantage for the colonies as their presence decreases colony growth and survival. The identification of diploid males is thus important from both ecological and economic points of view. In the present study, we applied the geometric morphometrics method on wing shape and size of B. terrestris diploid and haploid males at overall and intra-colony levels to investigate wing changes between the two groups. We found that changes in wing shape concerned almost all cells investigated and male diploidy resulted in a narrower and slightly longer configuration. In addition, diploid male wings presented a very high variation both in size and shape, likely due to sub-optimal temperature of incubation and food availability during their larval development. This strong variation of diploid male wings makes the ploidy discrimination by wing geometric morphometrics inaccurate based on small reference samples at the intra-colony level even with allometric data correction, whereas it is accurate (precision >90%) at the overall level, in which sample size is high enough (i.e., 500 individuals). Therefore, our results indicated the need to create a large dataset to allow the analysis of few samples, as is the case with studies of wild bumblebee populations, small rearing companies, or preserved museum specimens. For this reason, we provide a large database of B. terrestris wing Procrustes coordinates (500 samples) to the bumblebee scientific community for use in the analysis of the determination of diploid male individuals.

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“…Relatively low survival in gynes mated with related males during diapause was also observed (U. Gerloff and Schmid-Hempel 2005). However, it was found that diapause survival did not differ between gynes mated with siblings and those mated with nonsibling males (Bortolotti et al 2020). Inbreeding was also demonstrated to affect colony initiation, colony development, and queen fecundity (Gosterit 2016;Whitehorn et al 2009a).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Males from multiple colonies improve queen mating success in the bumblebee Bombus lantschouensis (Hymenoptera: Apidae)

Zhang

Ding

et al. 2021

Apidologie

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Mating is an important process in bumblebees that could affect queen diapause survival and offspring reproduction. Both queens and males could influence mating failure. Here, we used the indigenous bumblebee Bombus lantschouensis to evaluate the mating interactions of males and gynes. The effects of kin recognition and males and gynes from multiple colonies on mating latency, mating duration, and the mating success rate were investigated. The results showed that gynes mated with related males had a longer mating latency than those mated with unrelated males (42.88 ± 3.8 min and 24.15 ± 2.5 min, respectively, P < 0.05) and that the mating success rate was significantly higher in unrelated groups than in related groups (49.29 ± 4.1% and 36.74 ± 2.6%, respectively, P < 0.05). However, no preference for related or unrelated males was observed in the mixed mating groups (mating success rate 30.63 ± 3.1% and 30.73 ± 2.4%, respectively, P > 0.05). Interestingly, the occurrence of males from multiple sources significantly increased the mating success rate (one colony 39.1 ± 4.2% to four colonies 60.05 ± 5.7%, P < 0.05). Nonetheless, an increase in the number of gyne sources had no effect on the mating success rate (one colony 39.50 ± 4.9% to four colonies 43.52 ± 5.7%, P > 0.05). Mating latency was significantly more influenced by males and gynes from multiple colonies than by kin relationship, male number, and gyne number (P < 0.05). In conclusion, there is no evidence that the bumblebee B. lantschouensis can recognize kin relationships before mating. The presence of males and gynes from multiple colonies can influence mating latency. Moreover, males from multiple colonies can significantly enhance mating success, which has implications for bumblebee ecological conservation and artificial mass rearing.

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Influence of inbreeding in the early stages of artificially reared colonies of Bombus terrestris

Cited by 7 publications

References 49 publications

No severe genetic bottleneck in a rapidly range-expanding bumblebee pollinator

No severe genetic bottleneck in a rapidly range-expanding bumblebee pollinator

How to get rid of diploid bumblebee males – variability in wing size and shape does not allow within‐colony ploidy discrimination

Males from multiple colonies improve queen mating success in the bumblebee Bombus lantschouensis (Hymenoptera: Apidae)

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