Levels of polyandry and intracolonial genetic relationships in Apis koschevnikovi

SUMMARY

Adults of five Apis koschevnikovi colonies from Sabah, Malaysia (Borneo) were collected into alcohol and within two days, transferred to liquid nitrogen. DNA was extracted, amplified with four, or in one case six, microsatellite primer pairs or primers for a sequence tagged site, and genotypes for these loci were determined for 40 to 100 workers per colony. Four colonies were monogynous, one colony had worker daughters of two, probably highly related, queens. For the monogynous colonies, the queen genotypes and the number and genotypes of males mated by each queen was inferred from the worker genotypes. The queens mated with 10 to 32 drones. The average number of observed matings was 16.3 ± 10.5 and the average number of effective matings was 10.5 ± 8.4. The within-colony genetic relatedness was 0.31 ± 0.03. The fitness advantages of genetic variance are discussed.

Keywords:

• genetic variation
• polyandry
• microsatellite primers
• DNA
• multiple mating
• relatedness
• Apis koschevnikovi
• polymerase chain reaction
• Borneo
• Malaysia