Eusociality in African mole-rats: new insights from patterns of genetic relatedness in the Damaraland mole-rat ( Cryptomys damarensis )
| Autor: | Nigel C. Bennett, Jennifer U. M. Jarvis, Chris G. Faulkes, Tamsin M. Burland |
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| Rok vydání: | 2002 |
| Předmět: |
Male
Genotype Outbreeding depression Biology Polymerase Chain Reaction General Biochemistry Genetics and Molecular Biology South Africa Cooperative breeding Animals Damaraland mole-rat Social Behavior Crosses Genetic DNA Primers General Environmental Science Genetics Base Sequence Geography General Immunology and Microbiology Mole Rats Cryptomys DNA General Medicine biology.organism_classification Eusociality Evolutionary biology Biological dispersal Female Social evolution General Agricultural and Biological Sciences Inbreeding Research Article |
| Zdroj: | Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences. 269:1025-1030 |
| ISSN: | 1471-2954 0962-8452 |
| DOI: | 10.1098/rspb.2002.1978 |
| Popis: | After the discovery of eusociality in the naked mole-rat, it was proposed that inbreeding and high colony relatedness in this species were the major underlying factors driving cooperative breeding in African molerats. By contrast, field and laboratory studies of the eusocial Damaraland mole-rat (Cryptomys damarensis) have raised the possibility that this species is an obligate outbreeder, although the build-up of inbreeding over several generations could still occur. Using microsatellite markers, we show that most breeding pairs in wild colonies of the Damaraland mole-rat are indeed unrelated (R = 0.02 +/- 0.04) and that mean colony relatedness (R = 0.46 +/- 0.01), determined across 15 colonies from three separate populations, is little more than half that previously identified in naked mole-rats. This finding demonstrates that normal familial levels of relatedness are sufficient for the occurrence of eusociality in mammals. Variation in the mean colony relatedness among populations provides support both for the central role played by ecological constraints in cooperative breeding and for the suggestion that inbreeding in naked mole-rats is a response to extreme constraints on dispersal. Approaches that determine the relative importance of an array of extrinsic factors in driving social evolution in African mole-rats are now required. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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