Studies of the social evolution of termites using introduction of selfish-genotype individuals into incipient colonies.

2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26440230
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Ecology/Environment
• Research Institution: Ibaraki University
• Principal Investigator: Kitade Osamu 茨城大学, 理学部, 教授 (80302321)
• Research Collaborator: YABUKI KENTA ; TAKEUCHI TOMOTOSHI
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2017-03-31
• Keywords: 社会性 / シロアリ / 遺伝的カスト決定 / 攻撃行動 / 進化

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In this study, factors that promoted social evolution of termites were analyzed, using incipient colonies as model of ancestral termite colonies. Investigation of fitness components of parthenogenetic colonies under solitary and competitive environments revealed that individuals of selfish-genotype easily differentiated into supplementary reproductives and fight against original reproductives, which drastically decrease fitness of the colonies. Genetic caste determination system probably works to suppress the production of selfish individuals. Under competitive environments, both colony size increase and presence of soldiers greatly increase the fitness of colonies. Frequency of incipient colony fusion was affected by the relatedness between the reproductives.

Free Research Field

生態学