Extreme polyandry aids the establishment of invasive populations of a social insect

Although monandry is believed to have facilitated the evolution of eusociality, many highly eusocial insects have since evolved extreme polyandry. The transition to extreme polyandry was likely driven by the benefits of within-colony genetic variance to task specialization and/or disease resistance, but the extent to which it confers secondary benefits, once evolved, is unclear. Here we investigate the consequences of extreme polyandry on the invasive potential of the Asian honey bee, Apis cerana. In honey bees and other Hymenoptera, small newly founded invasive populations must overcome the genetic constraint of their sex determination system that requires heterozygosity at a sex-determining locus to produce viable females. We find A. cerana queens in an invasive population mate with an average of 27 males (range 16–42) that would result in the founding queen/s carrying 75% of their source population’s sex alleles in stored sperm. This mating frequency is similar to native-range Chines...尽管单配（monandry）曾被认为推动了真社会性（eusociality）的演化，但诸多高度真社会性昆虫后续却演化出了极端多配（polyandry）的繁殖策略。向极端多配的转变，大概率是受巢内遗传变异对任务分工及/或抗病性的益处所驱动；然而一旦该策略演化形成，其所能带来的额外益处究竟几何，目前仍不明确。本研究针对极端多配对东方蜜蜂（Apis cerana）入侵潜力的影响展开探究。在蜜蜂及其他膜翅目（Hymenoptera）昆虫中，新建立的小型入侵种群必须克服其性别决定系统带来的遗传限制——该系统要求性别决定位点（sex-determining locus）处于杂合状态，才能产生可存活的雌性个体。我们发现，某入侵种群中的东方蜜蜂蜂王，平均与27只雄蜂交配（交配次数范围为16至42次），这使得建群蜂王所储存的精子中携带着其源种群75%的性别等位基因。该交配频率与本土分布的中国类群……