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Dissertation
REPRODUCTIVE MECHANISMS OF EVOLUTIONARY DIFFERENTIATION OF THE HONEY BEE (Apis mellifera)
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Washington State University
2026
Abstract
Honey bee strains are descended from Old World Apis mellifera subspecies that are extant in their non-native ranges, including the Americas. Genetic differences between strains are maintained through behavioral barriers to mating and, in the case of commercial populations, through stringent breeding practices that isolate one strain from another. Cryptic barriers to reproductive isolation arising from female choice and sperm competition are not known in A. mellifera. To analyze cryptic barriers in A. mellifera, Italian and Caucasian queens from commercial breeders were instrumentally inseminated with either Italian or Caucasian semen, or both. Sperm counts from spermathecal contents of queens inseminated with only one type of semen revealed that there is no difference in the amount of sperm queens store when inseminated with con-subspecific semen or hetero-subspecific semen (p=0.518). Results suggest that, between commercial populations of Italian and Caucasian honey bees, female choice is not a reproductive barrier to isolation. Microsatellite paternity analysis of progeny from Italian and Caucasian queens instrumentally inseminated with both types of semen revealed no temporal trends in the first months after insemination, but Italian drones had greater overall paternity for both Italian queens (p=0.004678) and Caucasian queens (p=0.004885). miRNA expression in semen and sperm from Italian and Caucasian drones suggest the possibility of Italian semen to express miRNAs in greater abundance than Italian sperm, and no difference in miRNA expression in Caucasian semen and sperm, but further investigation is needed. These results together suggest that Italian semen may have a competitive advantage over Caucasian semen in the female reproductive tract.
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Details
- Title
- REPRODUCTIVE MECHANISMS OF EVOLUTIONARY DIFFERENTIATION OF THE HONEY BEE (Apis mellifera)
- Creators
- Kiersten Ritchie
- Contributors
- Walter S Sheppard (Advisor)Elizabeth Murray (Advisor)Brandon K Hopkins (Committee Member)Theodore Chauvin (Committee Member)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- Department of Entomology
- Theses and Dissertations
- Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Washington State University
- Number of pages
- 125
- Identifiers
- 99901394104601842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Dissertation