Thelytokous parthenogenesis in the fungus- gardening ant Mycocepurus smithii (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)
| Autor: | José Lino-Neto, Maurício Bacci, Simone C. Cappellari, Christian Rabeling, Ulrich G. Mueller, Iracenir A. Dos-Santos |
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| Přispěvatelé: | The University of Texas at Austin, Universidade Federal deViçosa, Universidade Estadual Paulista (Unesp) |
| Jazyk: | angličtina |
| Rok vydání: | 2009 |
| Předmět: |
0106 biological sciences
Parthenogenesis Evolutionary Biology/Sexual Behavior lcsh:Medicine Asexual reproduction animal behavior 01 natural sciences taxonomy animal lcsh:Science genetic recombination 0303 health sciences Multidisciplinary Behavior Animal biology Fungal genetics Eusociality mating female hypothesis organism colony Thelytoky Mycocepurus Thelytokous parthenogenesis Research Article Fungi imperfecti Zoology Fungus- gardening ant Evolutionary Biology/Evolutionary Ecology 010603 evolutionary biology thelytoky reproduction 03 medical and health sciences male Ecology/Behavioral Ecology Animals controlled study ant Formicidae Mycocepurus obsoletus 030304 developmental biology diploidy Evolutionary Biology nonhuman Obligate Ants lcsh:R Fungi Mycocepurus smithii biology.organism_classification Hymenoptera Sexual reproduction physiology lcsh:Q |
| Zdroj: | LOCUS Repositório Institucional da UFV Universidade Federal de Viçosa (UFV) instacron:UFV PLoS ONE, Vol 4, Iss 8, p e6781 (2009) PLoS ONE Scopus Repositório Institucional da UNESP Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP) instacron:UNESP |
| Popis: | Submitted by Vitor Silverio Rodrigues (vitorsrodrigues@reitoria.unesp.br) on 2014-05-27T11:23:57Z No. of bitstreams: 0Bitstream added on 2014-05-27T14:41:03Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 2-s2.0-69449091489.pdf: 4052716 bytes, checksum: 3769603f54e4ba627b2d87ffe6479446 (MD5) Made available in DSpace on 2014-05-27T11:23:57Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2009-08-26 The general prevalence of sexual reproduction over asexual reproduction among organisms testifies to the evolutionary benefits of recombination, such as accelerated adaptation to changing environments and elimination of deleterious mutations. Documented instances of asexual reproduction in groups otherwise dominated by sexual reproduction challenge evolutionary biologists to understand the special circumstances that might confer an advantage to asexual reproductive strategies. Here we report one such instance of asexual reproduction in the ants. We present evidence for obligate thelytoky in the asexual fungus-gardening ant, Mycocepurus smithii, in which queens produce female offspring from unfertilized eggs, workers are sterile, and males appear to be completely absent. Obligate thelytoky is implicated by reproductive physiology of queens, lack of males, absence of mating behavior, and natural history observations. An obligate thelytoky hypothesis is further supported by the absence of evidence indicating sexual reproduction or genetic recombination across the species' extensive distribution range (Mexico-Argentina). Potential conflicting evidence for sexual reproduction in this species derives from three Mycocepurus males reported in the literature, previously regarded as possible males of M. smithii. However, we show here that these specimens represent males of the congeneric species M. obsoletus, and not males of M. smithii. Mycocepurus smithii is unique among ants and among eusocial Hymenoptera, in that males seem to be completely absent and only queens (and not workers) produce diploid offspring via thelytoky. Because colonies consisting only of females can be propagated consecutively in the laboratory, M. smithii could be an adequate study organism a) to test hypotheses of the population-genetic advantages and disadvantages of asexual reproduction in a social organism and b) inform kin conflict theory. For a Portuguese translation of the abstract, please see Abstract S1. © 2009 Rabeling et al. Section of Integrative Biology The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX Departamento de Biologia Geral Universidade Federal deViçosa, Viçosa, Minas Gerais Center for the Study of Social Insects São Paulo State University, Rio Claro, São Paulo Center for the Study of Social Insects São Paulo State University, Rio Claro, São Paulo |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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