Sperm competition in honey bees (Apis mellifera L.): the role of body size dimorphism in drones

Abstract

Previous experimental studies demonstrated that small drones (SD) had lower paternity share since they were not successful in mating with queens as large drones (LD) in the mating arena. However, it remains unclear whether spermatozoa of SD can compete in vivo with those of LD if SD have mating opportunity. We, therefore, tested the spermatozoal competitiveness of SD against LD by instrumentally inseminating the queens with varying proportions of semen from LD and SD. Sister queens from a Buckfast colony and LD and SD from 15 Caucasian colonies were reared synchronously as experimental test individuals. The virgin sister queens were randomly allocated into three semen composition groups. The queens in groups A, B and C were inseminated with an equal volume of semen (7.2 μl) collected successively from 6 LD and 6 SD (50%:50% treatment), 3 LD and 9 SD (25%:75% treatment), and 9 LD and 3 SD (75%:25% treatment), respectively. Once oviposition starts in mating nucs, the queens were introduced into field colonies to proceed to lay eggs. After 3 months, about 100 newly emerged worker daughters from each queen were individually collected from the colonies for paternity assignment. Five polymorphic microsatellite loci (A024, A079, A43, A113, and Ap226) were analysed in 144 drones that were used to inseminate 12 experimental queens and 908 offspring workers. The observed patriline frequencies of LD and SD were 67.0% and 33.0% in group A, 34.6% and 65.4% in group B, and 79.8% and 20.2% in group C, respectively. The patriline frequencies within each colony were noticeably skewed. LD that were reared in QRC sired more offspring, whereas SD that were reared in LWC had lower paternity shares. When all three semen composition groups were pooled, the overall observed patriline frequency of SD (40%) was found to be 10% less than the overall expected patriline frequency (50%). The results demonstrated that SD remained a little behind LD in sperm competition.

Factors Influencing the Reproductive Ability of Male Bees: Current Knowledge and Further Directions

“…Gencer and Kahya mixed the sperm of two types of male bees of A. mellifera in different proportions for artificial insemination of queens. The paternal frequencies in the offspring of SDs were all lower than expected, while large males produced more offspring than expected [89]. Although SDs remained slightly behind LDs in regard to sperm competition, this does not imply that SDs reared in LWCs are useless.…”

“…Although SDs remained slightly behind LDs in regard to sperm competition, this does not imply that SDs reared in LWCs are useless. In addition, the concentration of sperm in the ejaculate affects the reproductive success of drones, and evolution forces drones to produce not only plentiful but also particularly concentrated semen [89].…”

Prospects in Connecting Genetic Variation to Variation in Fertility in Male Bees

“…The concentration of sperm presented on the endophallus is predictive of a drone's reproductive success [66,67]. More concentrated sperm increase a drone's probability of getting sperm pumped through the oviducts into the spermatheca, which are then used for fertilization.…”

“…Since sperm competition is likely non-existent or limited in honey bees [37], drones producing more sperm have a greater probability of fertilizing eggs. For example, sperm inseminated at higher quantities had greater paternal frequencies than sperm at lower quantities [66,67]. Additional studies found smaller drones had lower reproductive success, and they attributed this to lower sperm quantity [68].…”

“…As mentioned above, several sperm traits likely provide fitness benefits for males. For example, highly concentrated sperm is likely to increase a drone's probability of fertilization [66,67] and longer sperm may be better suited for long-term storage. Despite this, we still do not know which sperm traits vary and how they impact drone reproductive success.…”