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21 results for “colony fitness”
Long-term effects of antibiotic treatments on honeybee colony fitness – a modelling approach
<p><b>1.</b> Gut microbiome disequilibrium is increasingly <span>implicated </span>in host fitness reductions, including for the economically important and disease-challenged western honey bee, <i>Apis mellifera</i>. In lab experiments the antibiotic tetracycline, which is used to prevent American Foulbrood Disease in countries including the US, elevates honey bee mortality by disturbing the microbiome. It is unclear however, how elevated individual mortality affects colony level fitness.</p> <p><b>2.</b> We used an agent-based model (BEEHAVE) and empirical data to assess colony level effects of antibiotic-induced worker bee mortality, by measuring colony size. We investigated the relationship between the duration that the antibiotic-induced mortality probability is imposed for and colony size.</p> <p><b>3.</b> We found that when simulating antibiotic-induced mortality of worker bees from just 60 days per year, up to a permanent effect, the colony is reduced such that tetracycline treatment would not meet the European Food Safety Authority's (EFSA) honey bee protection goals. When antibiotic mortality was imposed for the hypothetical minimal exposure time, which assumes that antibiotics only impact the bee's fitness during the recommended treatment period of fifteen days in both spring and autumn, the colony fitness reduction was only marginally under the EFSA's threshold.</p> <p><b>4.</b> Synthesis and Applications: Modelling colony level impacts of antibiotic treatment shows that individual antibiotic-induced honey bee worker mortality can lead to colony mortality. To assess the full impact, the persistence of antibiotic-induced mortality in honey bees must be determined experimentally, <i>in vivo</i>. We caution that as the domestication of new insect species increases, maintaining healthy gut microbiomes is of paramount importance to insect health and commercial productivity. The recommendation from this work is to limit prophylactic use of antibiotics and to not exceed recommended treatment strategies for domesticated insects. This is especially important for highly social insects as excess antibiotic use will likely decrease colony growth and an increase in colony mortality.</p>
Data from: Stress-induced loss of social resilience in honeybee colonies and its implications on fitness
<p>Stressors may lead to a shift in the timing of life-history events of species causing a mismatch with optimal environmental conditions, potentially reducing fitness. In honeybees, the timing of brood rearing and nest emergence in late winter/early spring is critical, as colonies need to grow fast after winter to prepare for reproduction. However, the effects of stress on these life-history events in late winter/early spring and the possible consequences are not well understood. Therefore, we tested whether (1) honeybee colonies shift timing of brood rearing and nest emergence as a response to stressors, and (2) if there is a consequent loss of social resilience, reflected in colony fitness (survival, growth and reproduction). We monitored stressed (high load of the parasitic mite <em>Varroa destructor</em> or nutrition-restricted) colonies and presumably non-stressed colonies from the beginning of 2020 till the spring of 2021. We found that honeybee colonies do not shift the timing of brood rearing and nest emergence in spring as a coping mechanism to stressors. However, we show that there is a loss of social resilience in stressed colonies, leading to reduced growth and reproduction. Our study contributes to a better understanding of the effects of stressors on social resilience in eusocial organisms.</p>
Colony fitness increases in the honey bee at queen mating frequencies higher than genetic diversity asymptote
Abstract Across the eusocial Hymenoptera, a queen's mating frequency is positively associated with her workers' genetic diversity and colony's fitness. Over 90% of a colony's diversity potential is achieved by its mother's tenth effective mating (me); however, many females mate at levels of me > 10, a zone we here call hyperpolyandry. We compared honey bee colony fitness at mating levels near and above this genetic diversity asymptote. We were interested in how hyperpolyandry affects colony phenotypes arising from both common tasks (brood care) and rare specialized tasks (parasite resistance). We used an unselected wild line of bees and a Varroa Sensitive Hygiene (VSH) line selected to resist the parasite Varroa destructor. Virgin queens were instrumentally inseminated to replicate the following queen/colony conditions: (1) VSH semen/low polyandry (observed mating number = mo = 9), (2) VSH semen/high polyandry (mo = 54), (3) wild type semen/low polyandry, or (4) wild semen/high polyandry. There was a positive effect of polyandry on brood survival, an outcome of common tasks, with highest values at mo = 54. There was an interaction between polyandry and genetics such that differences between genetic lines expressed only at mo = 54, with fewer mites in VSH colonies. These results are consistent with two hypotheses for the evolution of mating levels in excess of the genetic diversity asymptote: hyperpolyandry improves colony fitness by (1) optimizing genotype compositions for common tasks and (2) by capturing rare specialist allele combinations, resisting cliff-edge ecological catastrophes. Significance statement Polyandry is a female's practice of mating with several males, storing their sperm, and using it to produce one or more clutches of genetically diverse offspring. In the social Hymenoptera, polyandry increases the genetic diversity and task efficiency of workers, leading to improved colony fitness. Over 90% of the increase in a colony's diversity potential is achieved by its mother's tenth mating; however, many females practice hyperpolyandry, a term we reserve here for mating levels above this genetic diversity asymptote. We show that a token of colony fitness arising from common tasks, brood survival, improves universally as one moves from sub- to hyperpolyandrous mating levels. However, a colony phenotype arising from a rare parasite resistance task is only expressed in the presence of the controlling alleles and under conditions of hyperpolyandry. These results suggest adaptive mechanisms by which hyperpolyandry could evolve.
The impact of dietary breadth on bumblebee colony fitness
<p>The current decline of pollinators may disrupt ecosystems and ecosystem services with potentially harmful effects on nature and human society. While the importance of habitat loss and fragmentation, pollution and increased disease risk in driving pollinator decline has been clearly demonstrated, the impact of resource diversity is less well understood. In this study, we investigated the effect of pollen diversity and composition on reproductive success and fitness of <em>Bombus terrestris</em> colonies. We asked the question whether a higher plant diversity results in a more diverse diet, lower pathogen incidence and a higher colony fitness. To answer these questions, colonies of lab-reared bumblebees were placed in species-poor heathland and species-rich semi-natural grasslands that strongly differed in plant community composition and diversity. We examined pollen loads on the bodies of foragers and identified the plant taxa present in the realized diet via DNA metabarcoding of the ITS2 marker. Liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) was used to compare peptide composition of pollen samples from both habitats. Colony fitness was assessed by counting the number of sexuals produced by the colony at the end of its cycle. At the same time, colonies were examined for parasite incidence. Pollen composition and diversity on pollinators' bodies differed significantly between bees foraging in grasslands and heathlands. Concomitantly, peptide composition differed significantly between pollen samples from grasslands and heathlands. Colonies developed significantly better in heathland sites than in grasslands. In addition, colony fitness was only weakly related to pollen diversity and effects in some cases depended on the habitat where the bees were foraging. Pathogen incidence was very low and not affected by habitat. Overall, our results indicate that plant diversity is not necessarily a good predictor of colony fitness, and that vegetation composition and associated differences in both the quantity and quality of pollen are more important than pollen diversity per se.</p>
Data from: Stress-induced loss of social resilience in honeybee colonies and its implications on fitness
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Colony fitness increases in the honey bee at queen mating frequencies higher than genetic diversity asymptote
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Long-term effects of antibiotic treatments on honeybee colony fitness – a modelling approach
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The impact of dietary breadth on bumblebee colony fitness
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Microsporidian parasite impairs colony fitness in bumblebees
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Habitat features and colony characteristics influencing ant personality and its fitness consequences
<p>Several factors can influence individual and group behavioral variation that can have important fitness consequences. In this study, we tested how two habitat types (semi-natural meadows and meadows invaded by <i>Solidago</i> plants) and factors like colony and worker size and nest density influence behavioral (activity, meanderness, exploration, aggression, nest displacement) variation on different levels of the social organization of <i>Myrmica rubra </i>ants and how these might affect the colony productivity. We assumed that the factors within the two habitat types exert different selective pressure on individual and colony behavioral variation that affects colony productivity. Our results showed individual-/colony-specific expression of both mean and residual behavioral variation of the studied behavioral traits. Although habitat type did not have any direct effect, habitat-dependent factors, like colony size and nest density influenced the individual mean and residual variation of several traits. We also found personality at the individual level and at the colony level. Exploration positively influenced the total- and worker production in both habitats. Worker aggression influenced all the productivity parameters in semi-natural meadows, whereas activity had a positive effect on the worker and total production in invaded meadows. Our results suggest that habitat type, through its environmental characteristics, can affect different behavioral traits both at the individual and colony level and those with a high influence on colony productivity will form the personality of individuals. Our results highlight the need for complex studies on the behavioral variation of social insects to fully understand the effects shaping their behavior and productivity parameters.</p>
Data from: When does growth rate influence fitness in a colonial marine invertebrate?
<p>Growth rate affects body size, and larger body sizes are often associated with the capacity to produce more surviving offspring. However, the assumption that growth rate should positively relate to fitness is rarely tested, especially in colonial marine invertebrates where size and age can be decoupled. We measured growth, survival, and reproduction through repeated census of 97 colonies from two populations of a marine bryozoan in the field from settlement to the end of their reproductive season in the northern Gulf of Mexico. Despite large population differences in fitness when grown in a common garden setting, selection within populations on variation in relative growth rate prior to reproduction was similar. In both populations, colonies that grew faster early after settlement, hence were larger, did not consistently have higher fitness than colonies that grew slower after settlement. Instead, early juvenile growth was uncorrelated to later juvenile growth, and colonies that grew faster just prior to the onset of reproduction had higher fitness than colonies that grew slower during this time. Growth rates then declined with the onset of reproduction. Our results show that, rather than being a simple consequence of selection on body size, growth rate can directly affect variation in fitness in ways that are not directly attributable to juvenile size. Colony size and growth rate in modular animals are not always reliable surrogates for direct estimates of survival and reproduction, without identifying when and how growth affects fitness.</p>
Net benefits of a mutualism: influence of the quality of extrafloral nectar on the colony fitness of a mutualistic ant
<p><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><strong>Aim</strong>: Extrafloral nectar, a carbohydrate-rich liquid, is the main plant-based resource offered in exchange for ant protection. The positive results of this protection provided by ants are widely studied and supported; however, studies showing the benefits that ants and their colonies have from the resources offered by plants such as extrafloral nectar are scarce. Here, we evaluated how extrafloral nectar and artificial food resources with different nutrient concentration benefit short- and long-term <i>Camponotus crassus</i> colony fitness (number and weight of individuals) and survival. </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p> <p><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><strong>Methods</strong>: We conducted two sets of experiments: (1) in the field we attached artificial ant nests to plants with clogged and unclogged extrafloral nectaries; and (2) in the laboratory we offered artificial food resources with different carbohydrate-protein ratios to ant colonies. With these experiments we evaluated the number and weight of queens, adult workers, pupae, larvae, and eggs, as well as the survival probability of the colonies.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p> <p><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><strong>Results</strong>: In the first experiment, the short-term provision of extrafloral nectar resulted in a larger number and weight of individuals with access to this resource. In the second experiment, regardless of time, the supply of more concentrated carbohydrate and nitrogen food increased ant colony fitness and survival. Conclusion: We provided new evidence that extrafloral nectar significantly benefits ant colonies. Our results corroborate the assertion that these relationships are reciprocally beneficial. </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
Data from: The association between mitochondrial genetic variation and reduced colony fitness in an invasive wasp
Despite the mitochondrion's long recognised role in energy production, mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) variation commonly found in natural populations was assumed to be effectively neutral. However, variation in mtDNA has now been increasingly linked to phenotypic variation in life-history traits and fitness. We examined whether the relative fitness in native and invasive common wasp (Vespula vulgaris) populations in Belgium and New Zealand (NZ), respectively, can be linked to mtDNA variation. Social wasp colonies in NZ were smaller with comparatively fewer queen cells, indicating a reduced relative fitness in the invaded range. Interestingly, queen cells in this population were significantly larger leading to larger queen offspring. By sequencing 1872 bp of the mitochondrial genome we determined mitochondrial haplotypes and detected reduced genetic diversity in NZ. Three common haplotypes in NZ frequently produced many queens, whereas the four rare haplotypes produced significantly fewer or no queens. The entire mitochondrial genome for each of these haplotypes was sequenced to identify polymorphisms associated with fitness reduction. We found 16 variable sites, however, no non-synonymous mutation that was clearly causing impaired mitochondrial function was detected. We discuss how detected variants may alter secondary structures, gene expression or mito-nuclear interactions, or could be associated with nuclear-encoded variation. Whatever the ultimate mechanism, we show reduced fitness and mtDNA variation in an invasive wasp population as well as specific mtDNA variants associated with fitness variation within this population. Ours is one of only a few studies that confirm fitness impacts of mtDNA variation in wild non-model populations.
Data from: The association between mitochondrial genetic variation and reduced colony fitness in an invasive wasp
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Net benefits of a mutualism: influence of the quality of extrafloral nectar on the colony fitness of a mutualistic ant
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Habitat features and colony characteristics influencing ant personality and its fitness consequences
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Data from: When does growth rate influence fitness in a colonial marine invertebrate?
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Data from: Biofilm formation and toxin production provide a fitness advantage in mixed colonies of environmental yeast isolates
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Data from: Macrophage adaptation leads to parallel evolution of genetically diverse Escherichia coli small-colony variants with increased fitness in vivo and antibiotic collateral sensitivity
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Data from: Crowding leads to fitness benefits and reduced dispersal in a colonial spider
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