Successful maintenance of a stingless bee population despite a severe genetic bottleneck

Autor(es)

Alves, Denise Araujo ; Imperatriz-Fonseca, Vera Lucia ; Francoy, Tiago Mauricio ; Santos-Filho, Persio Souza ; Billen, Johan ; Wenseleers, Tom

• Tipo de documento: Artigo Científico
• Fonte: CONSERVATION GENETICS; v. 12, n. 3, p. 647-658, JUN 2011.
• Área do conhecimento: Ciências Biológicas - Ecologia
• Citações Web of Science: 19
• Assunto(s): Abelhas

Resumo

Stingless bees play an important ecological role as pollinators of many wild plant species in the tropics and have significant potential for the pollination of agricultural crops. Nevertheless, conservation efforts as well as commercial breeding programmes require better guidelines on the amount of genetic variation that is needed to maintain viable populations. In this context, we carried out a long-term genetic study on the stingless bee Melipona scutellaris to evaluate the population viability consequences of prolonged breeding from a small number of founder colonies. In particular, it was artificially imposed a genetic bottleneck by setting up a population starting from only two founder colonies, and continued breeding from it for a period of over 10 years in a location outside its natural area of occurrence. We show that despite a great reduction in the number of alleles present at both neutral microsatellite loci and the sex-determining locus relative to its natural source population, and an increased frequency in the production of sterile diploid males, the genetically impoverished population could be successfully bred and maintained for at least 10 years. This shows that in stingless bees, breeding from a small stock of colonies may have less severe consequences than previously suspected. In addition, we provide a simulation model to determine the number of colonies that are needed to maintain a certain number of sex alleles in a population, thereby providing useful guidelines for stingless bee breeding and conservation efforts. (AU)

• Processo FAPESP: 04/15801-0 - Biodiversidade e uso sustentável de polinizadores, com ênfase em abelhas Meliponini
• Beneficiário: Vera Lucia Imperatriz-Fonseca
• Modalidade de apoio: Auxílio à Pesquisa - Programa BIOTA - Temático
• Processo FAPESP: 05/58093-8 - Estratégias reprodutivas em Melipona, com ênfase em pequenas populações de Melipona scutellaris (Apidae, Meliponini)
• Beneficiário: Denise de Araujo Alves
• Modalidade de apoio: Bolsas no Brasil - Doutorado Direto