Post-reproductive parthenogenetic pea aphids (Acyrthosiphon pisum) are visually identifiable and disproportionately positioned distally to clonal colonies.

ABSTRACT: The role of kin-selection in the evolution of post-reproductive life is controversial. While anthropological and demographic studies strongly suggest that humans and a few other species experience kin selection for significant post-reproductive survival, these results are necessarily correlational. Understanding could therefore be advanced by the development of a globally available, field and laboratory tractable experimental model of kin-selected post-reproductive survival. In only one invertebrate (Quadrartus yoshinomiyai, a gall-forming aphid endemic to Japan) have individuals too old to reproduce been shown to be both numerous in natural habitats and able to help close relatives survive or reproduce. Pea aphids, (Acyrthosiphon pisum), common, tractable organisms, frequent

SUBMITTER: Saberski ET 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5088610 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature