Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
High Strain
Queens
H1
H2
H3
H4
H5
Drones
H6
H7
H8
H9
H10
Sublines
Generation 1
Q
R
S
T
U
High Strain
Queens
Q
R
S
T
U
Drones
R
S
T
U
Q
Sublines
Generation 1
Q
R
S
T
U
Figure 5.5.
Breeding scheme for the high strain. h e upper panel shows how the
foundation generations were established for the high strain (the selection process
for the low strain is identical). h e 10 colonies with highest amounts of stored
pollen were chosen as parents and designated H1 to H10. Queens were raised
from H1 to H5, while drones were raised from H6 to H10. Drones from H6 were
used to inseminate (by instrumental insemination) queens from H1, and so on.
Queens were inseminated with the semen of a single drone each. h e lower panel
shows the pairings of sublines in generation 2. Each generation the drone source
rotated to the next subline; for example, in generation 3, queens from the
Q-subline were inseminated with drones from the S-subline. Reprinted with
kind permission from Springer Science+Business Media:
Behavioral Ecology and
Sociobiology,
“h e ef ects of colony-level selection on the social organization of
honey bee (
Apis mellifera
L.) colonies: Colony-level components of pollen
hoarding,” 36(2), 1995, 134-144, Page RE, Fondrk MK, Fig. 1.
the high-strain bees stored 6 times more pollen than bees from the low
strain. At er 32 generations, the high-strain bees stored 12 times more
pollen. In generation 4, we tested the high- and low-strain colonies
against the commercial bees from which we established our strains and
found that the commercial bees were intermediate in phenotype. h is
showed that both the high and low strains responded to selection: the
response was bidirectional. Selection for increased pollen hoarding did
