caa a22 4500 445857455 CHVBK 20180317145432.0 cr unu---uuuuu 170323e20110601xx s 000 0 eng 10.1007/s10592-010-0171-z doi (NATIONALLICENCE)springer-10.1007/s10592-010-0171-z Successful maintenance of a stingless bee population despite a severe genetic bottleneck [Elektronische Daten] [Denise Alves, Vera Imperatriz-Fonseca, Tiago Francoy, Pérsio Santos-Filho, Johan Billen, Tom Wenseleers] Stingless bees play an important ecological role as pollinators of many wild plant species in the tropics and have significant potential for the pollination of agricultural crops. Nevertheless, conservation efforts as well as commercial breeding programmes require better guidelines on the amount of genetic variation that is needed to maintain viable populations. In this context, we carried out a long-term genetic study on the stingless bee Melipona scutellaris to evaluate the population viability consequences of prolonged breeding from a small number of founder colonies. In particular, it was artificially imposed a genetic bottleneck by setting up a population starting from only two founder colonies, and continued breeding from it for a period of over 10years in a location outside its natural area of occurrence. We show that despite a great reduction in the number of alleles present at both neutral microsatellite loci and the sex-determining locus relative to its natural source population, and an increased frequency in the production of sterile diploid males, the genetically impoverished population could be successfully bred and maintained for at least 10years. This shows that in stingless bees, breeding from a small stock of colonies may have less severe consequences than previously suspected. In addition, we provide a simulation model to determine the number of colonies that are needed to maintain a certain number of sex alleles in a population, thereby providing useful guidelines for stingless bee breeding and conservation efforts. Springer Science+Business Media B.V., 2010 Diploid male production nationallicence Conservation genetics nationallicence Small population nationallicence Stingless bees nationallicence Meliponini nationallicence Alves Denise Bee Laboratory, Bioscience Institute, University of São Paulo, Rua do Matão Trav. 14, 321, 05508-090, São Paulo, Brazil aut Imperatriz-Fonseca Vera Bee Laboratory, Bioscience Institute, University of São Paulo, Rua do Matão Trav. 14, 321, 05508-090, São Paulo, Brazil aut Francoy Tiago School of Arts, Sciences and Humanities, University of São Paulo, Rua Arlindo Béttio 1000, 03828-000, São Paulo, Brazil aut Santos-Filho Pérsio Bee Laboratory, Bioscience Institute, University of São Paulo, Rua do Matão Trav. 14, 321, 05508-090, São Paulo, Brazil aut Billen Johan Laboratory of Entomology, Zoological Institute, Catholic University of Leuven, Naamsestraat 59, 3000, Leuven, Belgium aut Wenseleers Tom Laboratory of Entomology, Zoological Institute, Catholic University of Leuven, Naamsestraat 59, 3000, Leuven, Belgium aut Conservation Genetics Springer Netherlands 12/3(2011-06-01), 647-658 1566-0621 12:3<647 2011 12 10592 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10592-010-0171-z text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10592-010-0171-z text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Alves Denise Bee Laboratory, Bioscience Institute, University of São Paulo, Rua do Matão Trav. 14, 321, 05508-090, São Paulo, Brazil aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Imperatriz-Fonseca Vera Bee Laboratory, Bioscience Institute, University of São Paulo, Rua do Matão Trav. 14, 321, 05508-090, São Paulo, Brazil aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Francoy Tiago School of Arts, Sciences and Humanities, University of São Paulo, Rua Arlindo Béttio 1000, 03828-000, São Paulo, Brazil aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Santos-Filho Pérsio Bee Laboratory, Bioscience Institute, University of São Paulo, Rua do Matão Trav. 14, 321, 05508-090, São Paulo, Brazil aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Billen Johan Laboratory of Entomology, Zoological Institute, Catholic University of Leuven, Naamsestraat 59, 3000, Leuven, Belgium aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Wenseleers Tom Laboratory of Entomology, Zoological Institute, Catholic University of Leuven, Naamsestraat 59, 3000, Leuven, Belgium aut NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Conservation Genetics Springer Netherlands 12/3(2011-06-01), 647-658 1566-0621 12:3<647 2011 12 10592 Metadata rights reserved Springer special CC-BY-NC licence nationallicence BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-springer