Effects of various breeding strategies on diploid drone frequency and quantitative traits in a honey bee population

Abstract

When selecting in a finite population of honeybees there is a conflict between gain in a quantitative trait and increasing homozygosity, and therefore the frequency of inviable diploid drones. The consequences when using different mating, import, and selection strategies on diploid drone frequency and genetic gain, was explored with Monte Carlo computer simulations.Within a closed population breeding structure, mass selection gave the highest genetic gain in the quantitative trait, but also the largest increase in percentage diploid drones and queens with unacceptably-low brood viability. Mass selection combined with truncation selection against queens having more than 15% diploid drones gave a comparable genetic gain and was the best strategy of the ones studied to avoid diploid drones. Within-family selection (one replacement per sib group) gave the least genetic gain, and a frequency of diploid drones comparable to random (no) selection. It was intermediate between mass selection and mass selection combined with viability selection concerning the frequency of diploid drones.Insemination with pooled and homogenized semen originating from all breeder queens (30), as compared to natural mating with 12 randomly-selected drones, had little effect on the genetic gain and on the overall frequency of diploid drones (10 to 15% by generation 20).The effect of opening the closed breeding population for the import of external queens every generation, by exchanging breeder queens of lowest performance with a corresponding number of new queens (5, 10and 15 out of 30), was also investigated. Under mass selection (natural mating as well as artificial insemination) the frequency of diploid drones and the proportion of queens discarded were reduced because of low brood viability. However, artificial insemination was superior to natural mating considering the latter criterion. If the imported queens were at the same genetic level for the quantitative trait under selection as the whole breeding population at that generation, or 10% better, the genetic gain was respectively slightly reduced and approximately maintained. If the imported queens were of inferior quality (equal to the initial population) the import of queens slowed genetic progress considerably.