Gene flow is maintained by polyandry and male dispersal in the army ant<i>Eciton burchellii</i>

Jaffé, Rodolfo; Moritz, Robin F. A.; Kraus, Frank Bernhard

doi:10.1007/s10144-008-0133-1

Cited by 25 publications

(46 citation statements)

References 66 publications

(76 reference statements)

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“…The bivouac site-selection differences we documented could be due to plastic behavioral responses to local abiotic conditions, evolved (genetic) population differences, or a combination of the two. The wide elevational and latitudinal ranges of E. burchellii, combined with low queen dispersal (Berghoff et al, 2008;Jaffe et al, 2009) and the existence of morphologically distinct allopatric subspecies (Watkins, 1976), raise the possibility of local genetic adaptation to the abiotic environment. However, genetic adaptation may be limited by gene flow across elevations via dispersal of winged males.…”

Section: Bivouac Site Choicementioning

confidence: 99%

Choice of nest site protects army ant colonies from environmental extremes in tropical montane forest

et al. 2010

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Unlike most social insects, Eciton burchellii army ants cannot thermoregulate through nest construction. Instead, army ants thermoregulate behaviorally by creating a living nest (bivouac), shifting its position and structure, and potentially through nest site selection. We hypothesized that bivouac site selection is critical to E. burchellii colony survival. We predicted elevation above sea level, with associated variation in local abiotic environments, would affect bivouac site selection by E. burchellii colonies. We also expected nest sites to buffer against ambient variation in abiotic conditions. We recorded bivouac site choice by E. burchellii colonies at sites ranging from lowland wet forests to montane forests and reviewed previously published data. We measured microclimatic variables associated with nest sites in high-elevation montane forests: temperature, relative humidity, and light levels. Bivouac site selection varied with elevation: as elevation increased, fewer bivouac sites were exposed, more were underground, and fewer were elevated (in trees). High-elevation bivouac sites moderated diurnal temperature variation and had higher relative humidity levels and lower light levels than ambient conditions. The buffering of ambient temperature and humidity decreased with elevation in montane forests, suggesting that abiotic extremes in bivouac sites at the highest elevations may contribute to the upper elevational range limits of E. burchellii.

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Section: Bivouac Site Choicementioning

confidence: 99%

Choice of nest site protects army ant colonies from environmental extremes in tropical montane forest

et al. 2010

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“…The frequency of polyandry can affect the level of gene flow and effective population size [26], and, therefore, population viability [27,28]. Polyandry also determines the level of post-copulatory sexual selection and sexual conflict, giving rise to a range of adaptations and counter-adaptations involving reproductive manipulation [29,30].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The dynamic relationship between polyandry and selfish genetic elements

Wedell

2013

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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Selfish genetic elements (SGEs) are ubiquitous in eukaryotes and bacteria, and make up a large part of the genome. They frequently target sperm to increase their transmission success, but these manipulations are often associated with reduced male fertility. Low fertility of SGE-carrying males is suggested to promote polyandry as a female strategy to bias paternity against male carriers. Support for this hypothesis is found in several taxa, where SGE-carrying males have reduced sperm competitive ability. In contrast, when SGEs give rise to reproductive incompatibilities between SGE-carrying males and females, polyandry is not necessarily favoured, irrespective of the detrimental impact on male fertility. This is due to the frequency-dependent nature of these incompatibilities, because they will decrease in the population as the frequency of SGEs increases. However, reduced fertility of SGE-carrying males can prevent the successful population invasion of SGEs. In addition, SGEs can directly influence male and female mating behaviour, mating rates and reproductive traits (e.g. female reproductive tract length and male sperm). This reveals a potent and dynamic interaction between SGEs and polyandry highlighting the potential to generate sexual selection and conflict, but also indicates that polyandry can promote harmony within the genome by undermining the spread of SGEs.

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“…First, relatedness analyses within colonies may reveal its potential to counteract inbreeding [36]. Second, by correlating paternity data with colony size we test for the sperm limitation hypothesis.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Evolution of Extreme Polyandry in Social Insects: Insights from Army Ants

2014

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The unique nomadic life-history pattern of army ants (army ant adaptive syndrome), including obligate colony fission and strongly male-biased sex-ratios, makes army ants prone to heavily reduced effective population sizes (N e). Excessive multiple mating by queens (polyandry) has been suggested to compensate these negative effects by increasing genetic variance in colonies and populations. However, the combined effects and evolutionary consequences of polyandry and army ant life history on genetic colony and population structure have only been studied in a few selected species. Here we provide new genetic data on paternity frequencies, colony structure and paternity skew for the five Neotropical army ants Eciton mexicanum, E. vagans, Labidus coecus, L. praedator and Nomamyrmex esenbeckii; and compare those data among a total of nine army ant species (including literature data). The number of effective matings per queen ranged from about 6 up to 25 in our tested species, and we show that such extreme polyandry is in two ways highly adaptive. First, given the detected low intracolonial relatedness and population differentiation extreme polyandry may counteract inbreeding and low N e. Second, as indicated by a negative correlation of paternity frequency and paternity skew, queens maximize intracolonial genotypic variance by increasingly equalizing paternity shares with higher numbers of sires. Thus, extreme polyandry is not only an integral part of the army ant syndrome, but generally adaptive in social insects by improving genetic variance, even at the high end spectrum of mating frequencies.

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Gene flow is maintained by polyandry and male dispersal in the army antEciton burchellii

Cited by 25 publications

References 66 publications

Choice of nest site protects army ant colonies from environmental extremes in tropical montane forest

Choice of nest site protects army ant colonies from environmental extremes in tropical montane forest

The dynamic relationship between polyandry and selfish genetic elements

The Evolution of Extreme Polyandry in Social Insects: Insights from Army Ants

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