ISSN:
1420-9098
Keywords:
Key words: Queenless ants, relatedness, microsatellites, gamergates, Rhytidoponera sp. 12.
Source:
Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
Topics:
Biology
Notes:
Summary: Rhytidoponera sp. 12 is a queenless ponerine ant. Reproduction is only by several to many mated workers (gamergates). Until now there has been no information on the variation in relatedness between colonies of such ants. Here we use data from five highly polymorphic microsatellite markers to determine the intracolony relatednesses of cohabiting gamergates (bgg) collected from five colonies. Contrary to expectations from previous work, cohabiting gamergates are highly related, and colonies were provisionally classified into 2 types based on bgg: Type 1 colonies have full sister gamergates, while in Type 2 colonies gamergates are not full sisters, although still significantly related. The high relatedness observed between nestmate gamergates despite the low relatedness expected on theoretical grounds, the observed low relatedness between unmated nestmates, and the genetic signatures of migration between colonies indicates frequent bottlenecking, such as from colony founding events or catastrophic reductions in the numbers of gamergates per colony.
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/PL00001700
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