Re: Questions about haplodiploids

Jim asks:

1. Are there any species in which the haploid sex is female?

Not to my knowledge, or I believe to anyone else's. The situation would
be theoretically unstable and would quickly disappear.


2. Are there any species in which adult haploid males mate with
multiple female partners?

Yes. Most haplodiploid insects are not eusocial, if they're social at
all, even among the Aculeate Hymenoptera (bees, ants, wasps, etc.). The
common pattern in most insects is that the males emerge first as adults,
engage in male-male competitions and then wait at the ovipositional
sites/nest entrances to inseminate their sisters. This pattern is
especially common in the solitary male wasps.



3. Is there any evidence that haploid males are 'choosy' about
their sex partners, in the sense that females seem to be
in many species?

No, beyond passing basic species-recognition protocols. But who knows
what a young male wasp thinks?



4. One would expect that haploids, with only one copy of most
genes, would be especially prone to developmental defects
and that a smaller fraction would mature successfully as
compared to the diploid sex. Is this higher failure rate
actually seen?

Yes. A common response in haplodiploid populations which are encumbered
with significant germline DNA error is often the complete disappearance
of males. For a period of time, the local population will be wholly female.

Haplodiploidy doesn't make the males any less aggressive or territorial
than any other similar fully diploid male, but it does make them very
fragile genetically. When a haplodiploid population does become
encumbered with a significant congenital error, the rapid disappearance
of these genetically fragile males allows the fresh immigration of
healthy males into the population, providing a form of "genetic rescue."


5. Besides various insects, are there any other haplodiploid
animals, plants, or fungi?

Monogonont rotifers are cyclically haplodiploid. And technically, mites
are not insects, although many mite species are either fully
haplodiploid or parahaploid, which is in effect the same thing.

I know of no plant or fungal species that is technically haplodiploid,
but there is of course the phenomenon of "alteration of generations"
which accrues many of the same informational benefits to the species in
expurgating defective individuals burdened with congenital error from
the breeding population that haplodiploidy does.

Wirt Atmar



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    (soc.retirement)
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    (soc.retirement)