The evolution of non-reproductive workers in insect colonies with haplodiploid genetics

  1. Jason W Olejarz
  2. Benjamin Allen
  3. Carl Veller
  4. Martin A Nowak  Is a corresponding author
  1. Harvard University, United States
  2. Emmanuel College, United States

Abstract

Eusociality is a distinct form of biological organization. A key characteristic of advanced eusociality is the presence of non-reproductive workers. Why evolution should produce animals that sacrice their own reproductive potential in order to aid others is an important question in evolutionary biology. Here we provide a detailed analysis of the selective forces that determine the emergence and stability of non-reproductive workers. We study the effects, in situations where the queen of the colony has mated once or several times, of recessive and dominant sterility alleles acting in her offspring. Contrary to widespread belief based on heuristic arguments of genetic relatedness, non-reproductive workers can easily evolve in polyandrous species. The crucial quantity is the functional relationship between a colony's reproductive rate and the fraction of sterile workers present in that colony. We derive precise conditions for natural selection to favor the evolution of non-reproductive workers.

Article and author information

Author details

  1. Jason W Olejarz

    Program for Evolutionary Dynamics, Harvard University, Cambridge, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  2. Benjamin Allen

    Department of Mathematics, Emmanuel College, Boston, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  3. Carl Veller

    Program for Evolutionary Dynamics, Harvard University, Cambridge, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  4. Martin A Nowak

    Program for Evolutionary Dynamics, Harvard University, Cambridge, United States
    For correspondence
    martin_nowak@harvard.edu
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

Copyright

© 2015, Olejarz et al.

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.

Metrics

  • 4,192
    views
  • 668
    downloads
  • 21
    citations

Views, downloads and citations are aggregated across all versions of this paper published by eLife.

Download links

A two-part list of links to download the article, or parts of the article, in various formats.

Downloads (link to download the article as PDF)

Open citations (links to open the citations from this article in various online reference manager services)

Cite this article (links to download the citations from this article in formats compatible with various reference manager tools)

  1. Jason W Olejarz
  2. Benjamin Allen
  3. Carl Veller
  4. Martin A Nowak
(2015)
The evolution of non-reproductive workers in insect colonies with haplodiploid genetics
eLife 4:e08918.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.08918

Share this article

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.08918

Further reading

  1. How can natural selection favor the evolution of non-reproductive worker ants?

    1. Ecology
    Ivan Pokrovsky, Teja Curk ... Martin Wikelski
    Research Article

    Advances in tracking technologies have revealed the diverse migration patterns of birds, which are critical for range mapping and population estimation. Population trends are usually estimated in breeding ranges where birds remain stationary, but for species that breed in remote areas like the Arctic, these trends are often assessed in over-wintering ranges. Assessing population trends during the wintering season is challenging due to the extensive movements of birds in these ranges, which requires a deep understanding of the movement dynamics. However, these movements remain understudied, particularly in the mid-latitudes, where many Arctic breeders overwinter, increasing uncertainty in their ranges and numbers. Here, we show that the Arctic breeding raptor Rough-legged buzzard, which overwinters in the mid-latitudes, has a specific wintering strategy. After migrating ca. 1500 km from the Arctic to mid-latitudes, the birds continue to move throughout the entire over-wintering period, traveling another 1000 km southwest and then back northeast as the snowline advances. This continuous movement makes their wintering range dynamic throughout the season. In essence, this movement represents an extension of the quick migration process, albeit at a slower pace, and we have termed this migration pattern ‘foxtrot migration’, drawing an analogy to the alternating fast and slow movements of the foxtrot dance. These results highlight the potential errors in range mapping from single mid-winter surveys and emphasize the importance of this migration pattern in assessing the conservation status of bird species. Understanding this migration pattern could help to correctly estimate bird populations in over-wintering ranges, which is especially important for species that nest in hard-to-reach regions such as the Arctic.