International audienceOlder larvae of honeybee drones are fed with a diet containing pollen. It is not known how pollen deprivation during the larval development of drones might affect their reproductive quality. This study investigated ejaculation ability and semen quality in drones reared in colonies with limited (LP) and unlimited (ULP) access to pollen. Access to pollen was limited by pollen traps. Drone brood rearing was not instantly abandoned in colonies with limited access to pollen. Colonies from the LP group reared drones with smaller mass, which ejaculated in fewer numbers and released smaller amounts of semen. The LP and ULP groups did not differ in semen quality as judged by the concentration, number, and viability of spermatozoa in ejaculate. It was found that access to pollen during larval development directly affects the reproductive quality of drones
-Environmental stress during development can be linked to changes in morphological traits of the organism such as increased fluctuating asymmetry. In suboptimal conditions, like food deprivation, developmental stability may be perturbed, because organisms are not able to buffer disturbances caused by stressors and, in effect, greater degrees of asymmetry can arise during development. In this study, honeybee workers and drones were reared in colonies with limited and unlimited access to pollen. The developmental instability of the workers and drones in these colonies was assessed using the asymmetry of their fore wing venation. Both workers and drones showed a similar directional asymmetry of size-in favour of the right wing-and significant, but dissimilar, differences of wing shape. Limited access to pollen caused some differences in the fluctuating asymmetry of size and shape in pollen-deprived workers and drones compared to the control bees. However, more pronounced differences were found due to replication than to pollen deprivation itself. directional asymmetry / fluctuating asymmetry / pollen deprivation / Apis mellifera / fore wing
-We tested whether flow cytometry can be used for assessment of viability of honey bee (Apis mellifera) sperm. The method was used to detect possible competition between the sperm of different drones. The flow cytometry analysis of semen stained with SYBR-14/propidium iodide revealed significant differences between fresh and freeze-thawed samples. The identification of populations corresponding to viable and nonviable sperm allowed us to assess the sperm viability. The comparison of single-drone semen with mixed semen of two unrelated drones showed that sperm viability was not affected by mixing, but there were differences between mixed and unmixed semen in side scatter, which correlates with shape and optical homogeneity of particles. The proportion of particles in different populations also was affected by mixing of the semen. The results suggest that there are interactions between ejaculates of different drones, possibly related to sperm competition.honey bee / Apis mellifera / spermatozoa / sperm competition
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