Evolution of Asexual Queen Succession System in Termites

無性生殖的白蟻蟻后繼承系統之演化

Kenji Matsuura

《台灣昆蟲》 31卷2期 (2011/06) Pp. 117-131

https://doi.org/10.6661/TESFE.2011010

摘要

有性生殖的演化和維持被認為有重要的代價權衡參與其中，社會性昆蟲的王后必須在有性生殖與無性生殖的代價和利益中進行抉擇。王后可經由無性生殖加倍其貢獻至基因庫，然而過度的無性生殖將降低後代的遺傳多樣性，並因此降低群體對於環境壓力的適應能力。近年的研究顯示散白蟻屬Reticulitermes的一些蟻后可以有條件的運用有性與無性生殖來解決此代價權衡，蟻后經由孤雌生殖產生下一世代的蟻后，工蟻則經由有性生殖產生。我也將討論無性生殖的白蟻蟻后繼承系統可能的生理機制和潛在的遺傳背景。

關鍵字

產雌孤雌生殖 ； 階級分化 ； 遺傳多樣性 ； 蟻后繼承 ； 蟻后費洛蒙 ； 性別比例

並列摘要

The evolution and maintenance of sexual reproduction is believed to involve important tradeoffs. The queens of social insects are faced with a dilemma over the costs and benefits of sexual and asexual reproduction. Asexual reproduction by a queen doubles her contribution to the gene pool. However, overuse of asexual reproduction reduces the genetic diversity of the offspring and thus the ability of the colony to adapt to environmental stress. Recent research suggests that queens of some Reticulitermes termites can solve this tradeoff by the conditional use of sexual and asexual reproduction, whereby queens produce neotenic (secondary) queens by parthenogenesis but use sexual reproduction to produce workers and alates (sexual imagos). I also discuss proximate physiological mechanism and genetic background of the asexual queen succession system in the termites.

並列關鍵字

thelytoky ； caste differentiation ； genetic diversity ； queen succession ； queen pheromone ； sex ratio