Breeding queens may be mated with drones that are produced by a single drone-producing queen (DPQ), or a group of sister-DPQs, but often only the dam of the DPQ(s) is reported in the pedigree. Furthermore, datasets may include colony phenotypes from DPQs that were open-mated at different locations, and thus to a heterogeneous drone population. Simulation was used to investigate the impact of the mating strategy and its modelling on the estimates of genetic parameters and genetic trends when the DPQs are treated in different ways in the statistical evaluation model. We quantified the bias and standard error of the estimates when breeding queens were mated to one DPQ or a group of DPQs, assuming that this information was known or not. We also investigated four alternative strategies to accommodate the phenotypes of open-mated DPQs in the genetic evaluation: excluding their phenotypes, adding a dummy pseudo-sire in the pedigree, or adding a non-genetic (fixed or random) effect to the statistical evaluation model to account for the origin of the mates. The most precise estimates of genetic parameters and genetic trends were obtained when breeding queens were mated with drones of single DPQs that are correctly assigned in the pedigree. However, when they were mated with drones from one or a group of DPQs, and this information was not known, erroneous assumptions led to considerable bias in these estimates. Furthermore, genetic variances were considerably overestimated when phenotypes of colonies from open-mated DPQs were adjusted for their mates by adding a dummy pseudo-sire in the pedigree for each subpopulation of open-mating drones. On the contrary, correcting for the heterogeneous drone population by adding a non-genetic effect in the evaluation model produced unbiased estimates. Knowing only the dam of the DPQ(s) used in each mating may lead to erroneous assumptions on how DPQs were used and severely bias the estimates of genetic parameters and trends. Thus, we recommend keeping track of DPQs in the pedigree, and not only of the dams of DPQ(s). Records from DPQ colonies with queens open-mated to a heterogeneous drone population can be integrated by adding non-genetic effects to the statistical evaluation model.

中文翻译：

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蜜蜂交配策略的不确定性导致遗传参数估计的偏差和不可靠性


繁殖蜂王可以与由单个雄蜂生产蜂王 (DPQ) 或一群姐妹 DPQ 产生的雄蜂交配，但谱系中通常只报告 DPQ 的母亲。此外，数据集可能包括来自在不同位置开放交配的 DPQ 的菌落表型，从而形成异质雄蜂种群。通过模拟研究在统计评估模型中以不同方式处理DPQ时，交配策略及其建模对遗传参数和遗传趋势估计的影响。当繁殖蜂王与一个 DPQ 或一组 DPQ 交配时，我们量化了估计的偏差和标准误差，假设这些信息已知或未知。我们还研究了四种替代策略，以在遗传评估中适应开放交配的 DPQ 的表型：排除其表型，在谱系中添加虚拟假父系，或在统计评估中添加非遗传（固定或随机）效应模型来解释配合的起源。当繁殖蜂王与谱系中正确分配的单个 DPQ 的雄蜂交配时，获得了遗传参数和遗传趋势的最精确估计。然而，当它们与一个或一组 DPQ 的无人机交配时，并且这些信息未知，错误的假设导致这些估计出现相当大的偏差。此外，当通过在每个开放交配雄蜂亚群的谱系中添加虚拟假父系来调整开放交配 DPQ 群体的表型以适应其配偶时，遗传方差被大大高估了。 相反，通过在评估模型中添加非遗传效应来校正异质无人机种群会产生无偏估计。仅了解每次交配中使用的 DPQ 的母亲可能会导致对如何使用 DPQ 的错误假设，并严重影响遗传参数和趋势的估计。因此，我们建议在血统书中记录 DPQ，而不仅仅是 DPQ 的母亲。通过将非遗传效应添加到统计评估模型中，可以整合来自与异质雄蜂种群开放交配的蜂王的 DPQ 群体的记录。