| 要旨トップ | ESJ57 シンポジウム 一覧 | 日本生態学会第57回全国大会 (2010年3月,東京) 講演要旨


シンポジウム S01 -- 3月16日9:00-12:00 E会場

Sex and the Evolution of Eusociality

Organizer: Kenji Matsuura (Okayama University)

The evolution and maintenance of sexual reproduction is believed to involve important tradeoffs. Queens of social insects are in a dilemma over the costs and benefits of sexual and asexual reproduction. Asexual reproduction by a queen doubles her contribution to the gene pool. However, overuse of asexual reproduction reduces the offspring's genetic diversity and thus the colony's ability to adapt to environmental stress. Recent research on breeding systems using molecular markers revealed that queens of some ants and termites can solve this tradeoff by their conditional use of sexual and asexual reproduction. On the other hand, parthenogenesis can also function as ‘social cancer’ in the parthenogenetic ant. In this symposium, we show that eusociality with its attendant caste structure and unique life histories can generate novel reproductive and genetic systems with mixed modes of reproduction that can provide important insights into the advantages and disadvantages of sexual reproduction.

[S01-1] Diversity of termite breeding systems Edward L. Vargo (North Carolina State University)

[S01-2] Sex and asexual reproduction in termite evolution Kenji Matsuura (Okayama University)

[S01-3] The integrated society and its enemies: a case study of an asexual ant Shigeto Dobata (University of Tokyo)

[S01-4] Clonal reproduction and life history in myrmicine ant Vollenhovia emeryi with queen polymorphism Kyohsuke Ohkawara (Kanazawa University)

[S01-5] Sex and non-sex in insect social evolution: an overview Kazuki Tsuji (University of Ryukyus)


日本生態学会