Egg-laying "intermorphs" in the ant Crematogaster smithi neither affect sexual production nor male parentage.

We study male parentage and between-colony variation in sex allocation and sexual production in the desert ant Crematogaster smithi, which usually has only one singly-mated queen per nest. Colonies of this species are known to temporarily store nutrients in the large fat body of intermorphs, a speci...

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Autores principales:	Jan Oettler, Michiel B Dijkstra, Jürgen Heinze
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2013
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/be8339b174204b7bb1682632f0f2dae7
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:be8339b174204b7bb1682632f0f2dae72021-11-18T08:51:41ZEgg-laying "intermorphs" in the ant Crematogaster smithi neither affect sexual production nor male parentage.1932-620310.1371/journal.pone.0075278https://doaj.org/article/be8339b174204b7bb1682632f0f2dae72013-01-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmid/24130699/?tool=EBIhttps://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203We study male parentage and between-colony variation in sex allocation and sexual production in the desert ant Crematogaster smithi, which usually has only one singly-mated queen per nest. Colonies of this species are known to temporarily store nutrients in the large fat body of intermorphs, a specialized female caste intermediate in morphology between queens and workers. Intermorphs repackage at least part of this fat into consumable but viable male-destined eggs. If these eggs sometimes develop instead of being eaten, intermorphs will be reproductive competitors of the queen but--due to relatedness asymmetries--allies of their sister worker. Using genetic markers we found a considerable proportion of non-queen sons in some, but not all, colonies. Even though intermorphs produce ∼1.7× more eggs than workers, their share in the parentage of adult males is estimated to be negligible due to their small number compared to workers. Furthermore, neither colony-level sex allocation nor overall sexual production was correlated with intermorph occurrence or number. We conclude that intermorph-laid eggs typically do not survive and that the storage of nutrients and their redistribution as eggs by intermorphs is effectively altruistic.Jan OettlerMichiel B DijkstraJürgen HeinzePublic Library of Science (PLoS)articleMedicineRScienceQENPLoS ONE, Vol 8, Iss 10, p e75278 (2013)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Jan Oettler Michiel B Dijkstra Jürgen Heinze Egg-laying "intermorphs" in the ant Crematogaster smithi neither affect sexual production nor male parentage.
description	We study male parentage and between-colony variation in sex allocation and sexual production in the desert ant Crematogaster smithi, which usually has only one singly-mated queen per nest. Colonies of this species are known to temporarily store nutrients in the large fat body of intermorphs, a specialized female caste intermediate in morphology between queens and workers. Intermorphs repackage at least part of this fat into consumable but viable male-destined eggs. If these eggs sometimes develop instead of being eaten, intermorphs will be reproductive competitors of the queen but--due to relatedness asymmetries--allies of their sister worker. Using genetic markers we found a considerable proportion of non-queen sons in some, but not all, colonies. Even though intermorphs produce ∼1.7× more eggs than workers, their share in the parentage of adult males is estimated to be negligible due to their small number compared to workers. Furthermore, neither colony-level sex allocation nor overall sexual production was correlated with intermorph occurrence or number. We conclude that intermorph-laid eggs typically do not survive and that the storage of nutrients and their redistribution as eggs by intermorphs is effectively altruistic.
format	article
author	Jan Oettler Michiel B Dijkstra Jürgen Heinze
author_facet	Jan Oettler Michiel B Dijkstra Jürgen Heinze
author_sort	Jan Oettler
title	Egg-laying "intermorphs" in the ant Crematogaster smithi neither affect sexual production nor male parentage.
title_short	Egg-laying "intermorphs" in the ant Crematogaster smithi neither affect sexual production nor male parentage.
title_full	Egg-laying "intermorphs" in the ant Crematogaster smithi neither affect sexual production nor male parentage.
title_fullStr	Egg-laying "intermorphs" in the ant Crematogaster smithi neither affect sexual production nor male parentage.
title_full_unstemmed	Egg-laying "intermorphs" in the ant Crematogaster smithi neither affect sexual production nor male parentage.
title_sort	egg-laying "intermorphs" in the ant crematogaster smithi neither affect sexual production nor male parentage.
publisher	Public Library of Science (PLoS)
publishDate	2013
url	https://doaj.org/article/be8339b174204b7bb1682632f0f2dae7
work_keys_str_mv	AT janoettler egglayingintermorphsintheantcrematogastersmithineitheraffectsexualproductionnormaleparentage AT michielbdijkstra egglayingintermorphsintheantcrematogastersmithineitheraffectsexualproductionnormaleparentage AT jurgenheinze egglayingintermorphsintheantcrematogastersmithineitheraffectsexualproductionnormaleparentage
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Egg-laying "intermorphs" in the ant Crematogaster smithi neither affect sexual production nor male parentage.

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