Sex allocation conflict in ants: when the queen rules.

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Serval ID
serval:BIB_E048E91F03AC
Type
Article: article from journal or magazin.
Collection
Publications
Institution
Title
Sex allocation conflict in ants: when the queen rules.
Journal
Current Biology
Author(s)
Rosset H., Chapuisat M.
ISSN
0960-9822[print], 0960-9822[linking]
Publication state
Published
Issued date
2006
Peer-reviewed
Oui
Volume
16
Number
3
Pages
328-331
Language
english
Abstract
Insect societies are paramount examples of cooperation, yet they also harbor internal conflicts whose resolution depends on the power of the opponents. The male-haploid, female-diploid sex-determining system of ants causes workers to be more related to sisters than to brothers, whereas queens are equally related to daughters and sons. Workers should thus allocate more resources to females than to males, while queens should favor an equal investment in each sex. Female-biased sex allocation and manipulation of the sex ratio during brood development suggest that workers prevail in many ant species. Here, we show that queens of Formica selysi strongly influenced colony sex allocation by biasing the sex ratio of their eggs. Most colonies specialized in the production of a single sex. Queens in female-specialist colonies laid a high proportion of diploid eggs, whereas queens in male-specialist colonies laid almost exclusively haploid eggs, which constrains worker manipulation. However, the change in sex ratio between the egg and pupae stages suggests that workers eliminated some male brood, and the population sex-investment ratio was between the queens' and workers' equilibria. Altogether, these data provide evidence for an ongoing conflict between queens and workers, with a prominent influence of queens as a result of their control of egg sex ratio.
Keywords
Animals, Ants/physiology, Conflict (Psychology), Female, Hierarchy, Social, Microsatellite Repeats/genetics, Ploidies, Reproduction/physiology, Sex Ratio, Switzerland
Pubmed
Web of science
Open Access
Yes
Create date
24/01/2008 19:22
Last modification date
20/08/2019 16:04
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