Inbreeding depression of female fecundity by genetic factors retained in natural populations of a male-haploid social mite (Acari: Tetranychidae)

Authors: Mori, Kotaro¹; Saito, Yutaka²; Sakagami, Takane¹; Sahara, Ken³

Source: Experimental and Applied Acarology, Volume 36, Number 1, May 2005 , pp. 15-23(9)

Publisher: Springer

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Abstract:

We previously determined that certain recessive genes decrease female fecundity in a haplo-diploid spider mite, Stigmaeopsis miscanthi (Saito). However, whether the depression was caused by the breakdown of heterosis or the expression of deleterious genes retained in a population could not be determined, because we had started our inbreeding experiment from a mixture of two isolated populations. In order to answer this basic question, inbreeding effects on survival and fecundity were measured for eight small populations occurring far from the two initial populations. There was little depression of immature survival of inbred lineages in all populations. On the other hand, in two inbred lineages, both originating from the smallest populations, female oviposition decreased significantly with the increase of Wrights f-value, showing that mildly deleterious genes are actually retained even in natural populations of haplo-diploid organisms.

Keywords: Deleterious recessive; Female-limited genes; Haplo-diploidy; Heterosis; Small population; Stigmaeopsis miscanthi; Tetranychidae

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10493-004-8151-y

Affiliations: 1: Laboratory of Animal Ecology, Graduate School of Agriculture, Hokkaido University, 060-8589, Kita-ku, Sapporo, Japan, 2: Laboratory of Animal Ecology, Graduate School of Agriculture, Hokkaido University, 060-8589, Kita-ku, Sapporo, Japan, Email: yutsat@res.agr.hokudai.ac.jp 3: Laboratory of Applied Molecular Entomology, Hokkaido University, 060-8589, Kita-ku, Sapporo, Japan,

Publication date: 2005-05-01