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Title: Colony genetic organization and breeding pattern of subterranean termite (Reticulitermes flavipes) over the three field seasons in Nebraska, USA

Author
item MAJID, ADUL HAFIZ - University Of Science Malaysia
item KAMBLE, SHRIPAT - University Of Nebraska
item Chen, Hong

Submitted to: Entomology, Ornithology, & Herpetology
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 7/6/2014
Publication Date: 7/9/2014
Citation: Majid, A.A., Kamble, S.T., Chen, H. 2014. Colony genetic organization and breeding pattern of subterranean termite (Reticulitermes flavipes) over the three field seasons in Nebraska, USA. Entomology, Ornithology, & Herpetology. 3(3):133.

Interpretive Summary: Termites are economically important pests in much of the United States. This work was done in Nebraska in an effort to understand changes in termite colonies over the seasons. Molecular genetic techniques were used to monitor the termite colony structure. We learned that, in Nebraska, termites from different colonies appear to mix over the course of time. Therefore, new colonies may not originate from single, parent colonies but rather from a colony of mixed genetic background. This could have implications in developing control techniques.

Technical Abstract: In this study, we repeated sampling from eight individual colonies from Wilderness Park, Lincoln, Nebraska, separated by at least 200 meters over a 3-year period and during seasonal change (fall-winter) from 2009 to 2011. Ten workers from each site were genotyped at seven microsatellite loci. The results show that 62.5% of simple family colonies converted into mixed family after a year. The overall breeding pattern of the eight colonies changed from simple to mixed family colonies throughout the three years and back to simple family colonies type during the transition from fall to winter in 2010. F-statistics and relatedness analysis showed that the colony founded by unrelated pair of reproductives have high relatedness value (r > 0.85) within colony. Our data indicated that termite colonies could form through the colonies fusion over time under natural conditions and probably could be influenced by seasonal temperature change.