Thelytokous parthenogenesis in unmated queen honeybees (Apis mellifera capensis): central fusion and high recombination rates.

Genetics
Benjamin P OldroydM Beekman

Abstract

The subspecies of honeybee indigenous to the Cape region of South Africa, Apis mellifera capensis, is unique because a high proportion of unmated workers can lay eggs that develop into females via thelytokous parthenogenesis involving central fusion of meiotic products. This ability allows pseudoclonal lineages of workers to establish, which are presently widespread as reproductive parasites within the honeybee populations of South Africa. Successful long-term propagation of a parthenogen requires the maintenance of heterozygosity at the sex locus, which in honeybees must be heterozygous for the expression of female traits. Thus, in successful lineages of parasitic workers, recombination events are reduced by an order of magnitude relative to meiosis in queens of other honeybee subspecies. Here we show that in unmated A. m. capensis queens treated to induce oviposition, no such reduction in recombination occurs, indicating that thelytoky and reduced recombination are not controlled by the same gene. Our virgin queens were able to lay both arrhenotokous male-producing haploid eggs and thelytokous female-producing diploid eggs at the same time, with evidence that they have some voluntary control over which kind of egg was laid. I...Continue Reading

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Citations

Oct 18, 2012·Annual Review of Entomology·Christian Rabeling, Daniel J C Kronauer
Apr 10, 2012·Trends in Ecology & Evolution·Robert A DrewellBenjamin P Oldroyd
Nov 4, 2010·Evolution; International Journal of Organic Evolution·Benjamin P OldroydMadeleine Beekman
Jun 8, 2012·Evolution; International Journal of Organic Evolution·Frances GoudieBenjamin P Oldroyd
Oct 30, 2010·Evolution; International Journal of Organic Evolution·Jan EngelstädterChristoph Vorburger
Oct 15, 2011·BioEssays : News and Reviews in Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology·Tom Wenseleers, Annette Van Oystaeyen
Jan 1, 2014·Evolution; International Journal of Organic Evolution·Frances GoudieBenjamin P Oldroyd
Jun 16, 2010·Molecular Ecology·Michael J HolmesMadeleine Beekman
Jan 15, 2015·Heredity·N C ChapmanB P Oldroyd
Mar 1, 2011·Current Biology : CB·Christoph Sandrock, Christoph Vorburger
Nov 11, 2018·Journal of Evolutionary Biology·Nicholas M A SmithBenjamin P Oldroyd
Jul 22, 2011·The Journal of Heredity·Madeleine BeekmanBenjamin P Oldroyd
May 15, 2012·The Journal of Heredity·Christian W PirkRobin M Crewe
Sep 6, 2015·Genetics·Nils SvendsenChristoph R Haag
Aug 25, 2018·G3 : Genes - Genomes - Genetics·Benjamin P OldroydMadeleine Beekman
Jun 10, 2021·Proceedings. Biological Sciences·Benjamin P OldroydMadeleine Beekman

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