Clonal reproduction and genetic caste differences in a queen-polymorphic ant, Vollenhovia emeryi.

ABSTRACT: Most social Hymenoptera are characterized by simple haploid sex determination and environment-based caste differentiation. This appears to be strikingly different in the queen-polymorphic ant Vollenhovia emeryi. Almost all long- and short-winged queens from a population in Central Japan were homozygous at three microsatellite loci, whereas workers were mostly heterozygous, suggesting either a complex system of genetic caste determination or, more likely, the production of female sexuals from unfertilized eggs by thelytokous parthenogenesis and of workers from fertilized eggs. Furthermore, male genotypes were not compatible with those of the queens and had exclusively the paternal allele found in the sterile, heterozygous workers, probably because males are produced from fertilized eggs aft

SUBMITTER: Ohkawara K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1686177 | biostudies-literature | 2006 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature