Data from: Comparison of pooled semen insemination and single colony insemination as sustainable honeybee breeding strategies

Instrumental insemination of honeybees allows for two opposing breeding strategies. In single colony insemination (SCI), all drones to inseminate a queen are taken from one colony. In pooled semen insemination (PSI), sperm of many genetically diverse drones is mixed and queens are fertilised from the resulting drone pool. While SCI allows for maximum pedigree control, proponents of PSI claim to reduce inbreeding and maintain genetic variance. Using stochastic simulation studies, we compared genetic progress and inbreeding rates in small honeybee populations under SCI and PSI. Four different selection criteria were covered: estimated breeding values (EBV), phenotypes, true breeding values (TBV), and random selection. Under EBV-based truncation selection, SCI yielded 9.0% to 44.4% higher genetic gain than PSI, but had vastly increased inbreeding rates. Under phenotypical or TBV selection, the gap between SCI and PSI in terms of genetic progress narrowed. Throughout, PSI yielded lower inbreeding rates than SCI, but the differences were only substantial under EBV truncation selection. As a result, PSI did not appear as a viable breeding strategy due to its incompatibility with modern methods of genetic evaluation. Instead, SCI is to be preferred but instead of strict truncation selection, strategies to avoid inbreeding need to be installed.

蜜蜂人工授精（Instrumental insemination of honeybees）可支持两种截然相反的育种策略。其中单群人工授精（Single Colony Insemination, SCI）指用于给蜂王授精的全部雄蜂均取自同一蜂群；而混合精液人工授精（Pooled Semen Insemination, PSI）则是将多个遗传背景各异的雄蜂精液混合后，利用该混合精液完成蜂王授精。尽管单群人工授精可实现最高精度的系谱管控，但混合精液人工授精的支持者认为该策略可降低近交程度并维持群体遗传方差。本研究通过随机模拟试验，对比了小型蜂群群体分别采用单群人工授精与混合精液人工授精时的遗传进展与近交速率。本次试验涵盖四种不同的选择标准：估计育种值（Estimated Breeding Value, EBV）、表型值、真实育种值（True Breeding Value, TBV）以及随机选择。在基于估计育种值的截断选择场景下，单群人工授精的遗传增益较混合精液人工授精高出9.0%至44.4%，但其近交速率也大幅提升。而在基于表型或真实育种值的选择下，单群人工授精与混合精液人工授精之间的遗传进展差距有所收窄。整体而言，混合精液人工授精的近交速率始终低于单群人工授精，但该差异仅在基于估计育种值的截断选择场景下才较为显著。研究结果表明，混合精液人工授精因与现代遗传评估方法兼容性不足，并非可行的育种策略。相较之下，单群人工授精更为可取，但需采用规避近交的育种方案以替代严格的截断选择。