Patrilineal Distribution of Daughter Queens and Their Nursing Workers in Apis cerana cerana Colonies During Emergency Queen Rearing

Purpose To study the patrilineal distribution of daughter queens and their nursing workers in Apis cerana cerana colonies during emergency queen rearing.

Methods Four A. cerana cerana colonies were dequeened through artificial manipulation. Samples of emergency daughter queens, reared from larvae of the original colony, and their nursing workers were collected. Genotypes of all samples were determined by microsatellite simple sequence repeats (SSR) molecular markers and capillary electrophoresis. The patrilineal origin of each sample was identified by MateSoft software, and the patrilineal distribution was analyzed through Chi-square tests.

Results In the four experimental colonies (A, B, C, D), 16-34 paternal lineages were identified respectively. The daughter queens of each colony emerged from only 3-13 patrilines, which accounted for 17.6%-38.2% of the total patrilineal diversity of each colony. Nursing workers were derived from nearly every patriline in all four colonies. Chi-square test results showed that: P_{W colony A}=0.945 6, P_{W colony B}=0.005 9, P_{W colony C}=0.145 4, and P_{W colony D}=0.787 3. Up to 20% of the daughter queens and their nursing workers belong to the same paternal line, but it could also be as low as 0%.

Conclusion During emergency queen rearing in A. cerana cerana, daughter queens emerge from only a few patrilines, while nursing workers arise from almost all patrilines of the colony. There is no significant paternal relationship between the daughter queens and their nursing workers.