The termites (Isoptera) are an important group of eusocial insects whose breeding systems have been relatively poorly studied. In this study, we inferred the breeding systems of two sympatric species of Reticulitermes flavipes (Kollar) and R. hageni Banks by investigating colony and population genetic structure using microsatellite and mitochondrial DNA markers. Termites were collected in natural wood debris along two transects 1 km apart in a forested site in the Coastal Plain of southeastern North Carolina. Collection points within transects were at least 15 m apart (mean = 22.4 m) and each collection point was found to be a separate colony based on microsatellite genotypes. Of the total colonies collected, eight colonies were identified as R. flavipes, 28 were R. hageni and two colonies were identified as R. virginicus. A total of 720 workers from 36 collection points were genotyped at 5-8 microsatellite loci and the mtDNA haplotype was determined for two individuals from each collection point at the cytochrome oxidase II gene. Genetic analysis of family structure and comparisons of F-statistics (FIT, FIC and FCT) and the coefficient of relatedness (r) were compared with computer-simulated values revealing very similar breeding systems between the two species. Analysis using F-statistics compared with computer simulated breeding systems (Thorne et al. 1999 and Bulmer et al. 2001) suggested that nearly 90% of the colonies of both species were simple families headed by inbred monogamous pairs of reproductives while the remaining colonies were extended (inbred) families headed by low numbers of reproductives that were descendants of the founding pair, possibly their direct offspring. There was no evidence of genetic differences between transects based on microsatellite data for R. flavipes (FST = 0.044, 95% confidence interval (CI) = -0.011 to 0.104) and evidence for a genetic difference between R. hageni transects (FST = 0.070, 95% CI = 0.025 to 0.108). This suggests a lack of budding and that mating flight dispersal is not limited over the study distance. These results indicate that within the study area R. flavipes and R. hageni have very similar breeding systems characterized by monogamous pairs of reproductives headed by slightly inbred reproductives and that few of these live long enough to produce more than a few neotenics. Results using mtDNA sequence data show two clades for each of the two species, R. flavipes and R. hageni. When comparing clades using microsatellite data, no significant difference between the clades was found for R. hageni, but a significant difference was found between clades for R. flavipes.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:NCSU/oai:NCSU:etd-04272005-145915 |
| Date | 28 April 2005 |
| Creators | Dalton, Hope Anne |
| Contributors | Edward L. Vargo, Coby Schal, Jenny Xiang |
| Publisher | NCSU |
| Source Sets | North Carolina State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/theses/available/etd-04272005-145915/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to NC State University or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
Page generated in 0.0072 seconds