Temporal variation in the genetic structure of a drone congregation area: An insight into the population dynamics of wild African honeybees (Apis mellifera scutellata)

The mating system of the honeybee (Apis mellifera) has been regarded as one of the most panmictic in the animal kingdom, with thousands of males aggregating in drone congregation areas (DCAs) that virgin queens visit to mate with tens of partners. Although males from many colonies gather at such congregations, the temporal changes in the colonies contributing drones remain unknown. Yet, changes in the DCAs' genetic structure will ultimately determine population gene flow and effective population size. By repeatedly sampling drones from an African DCA over a period of three years, we studied the temporal changes in the genetic structure of a wild honeybee population. Using three sets of tightly linked microsatellite markers, we were able to reconstruct individual queen genotypes with a high accuracy, follow them through time and estimate their rate of replacement. The number of queens contributing drones to the DCA varied from 12 to 72 and was correlated with temperature and rainfall. We...

西方蜜蜂（Apis mellifera）的交配系统被认为是动物界中最接近泛交的交配系统之一：数千只雄蜂会聚集于雄蜂聚集区（Drone Congregation Areas, DCAs），处女蜂王会到访该区域与数十只雄蜂完成交配。尽管多个蜂群的雄蜂会在此类聚集区汇集，但贡献雄蜂的蜂群随时间的动态变化仍未可知。然而，雄蜂聚集区的遗传结构变化，最终将决定种群的基因流与有效种群大小。本研究连续三年对一处非洲的雄蜂聚集区的雄蜂进行重复采样，以此探究野生西方蜜蜂种群遗传结构的时间变化规律。本研究采用三套紧密连锁的微卫星标记（microsatellite markers），可高精度重构单只蜂王的基因型，追踪其种群动态并估算其更替速率。该雄蜂聚集区中，贡献雄蜂的蜂王数量介于12至72只之间，且与气温和降水量存在相关性。本研究……