The Cape honey bee, or Cape bee, (Apis mellifera capensis) is a South African species capable of reproducing via a process called thelytoky. Share. However, in a study published on May 8, researchers at the University of Sydney (UoS) of Australia claimed to have deciphered the mystery. Mol Ecol 19:2792–2799 Verlag, Berlin, pp 231–243 Jordan LA, Allsopp MH, Oldroyd BP, Wossler TC, Beekman M Walsh PS, Metzger DA, Higuchi R (1991) Chelex 100© as a medium (2008) Cheating honeybee workers … Mol Ecol 18 : 2722–2727. Yagound et al. Understanding reproduction in Cape bees is fundamental to understanding their biology and behavior. But the South African Cape honey bee (Apis mellifera capensis) can flaunt these rules. A quantitative study of worker reproduction in queenright colonies of the Cape honey bee Apis mellifera capensis. Cape Honey Bee Eggs; Honey Bee reproduction; Published : 2020-05-10 08:38:35. The study presents its revolutionary findings – the existence of a single gene that enables asexual reproduction for the South African Cape honey bees, a phenomenon which scientists have been trying to get their heads around for decades. Thelytoky allows some workers to be reincarnated into the queen phenotype, and thereby selects for reproductive competition among workers. As with other honey bees, Capensis queens produce diploid female offspring sexually and haploid male offspring asexually. Queens are the reproductive individuals in honey bee colonies. Apis is the Latin word for “bee” and mellifera is from the Latin word for “honey” (melli), and for “bearer” (ferre).The subspecies name (capensis) of course refers to the distribution.Common namesKaapse bye (Afrikaans); Inyosi (isiXhosa);. Several other traits distinguish the Cape honey bee from other honey bee subspecies. Honey Bee Reproduction. They are, from a genetic point of view, a real threat to their own queen. Behav Ecol Sociobiol. Asexual reproduction via thelytokous parthenogenesis is widespread in the Hymenoptera, but its genetic underpinnings have been described only twice. The genetics that underlie this ability of Cape honey bee workers to act as queens have remained a mystery for nearly 60 years. Facebook; Twitter; Reddit; Flipboard; Email; WhatsApp; Add Your Comment. A Single Gene Causes Thelytokous Parthenogenesis, the Defining Feature of the Cape Honeybee Apis mellifera capensis. That gene is located on chromosome 11 and is called GB45239. Cape bee workers can produce diploid eggs by thelytoky (leading to the production of workers or queens) and are thus able to challenge the queen and compete with each other for the right to reproduce. Only the queen bee and the drones have a fully developed reproductive system. The gene likely orchestrates the fusion of maternal pronuclei in the … Visscher PK, 1996. For the most part, reproduction in Cape bees follows that of other races of honey bees. Workers of the Cape honey bee, Apis mellifera capensis apis mellifera capensis Subject Category: Organism Names see more details, are able to produce diploid female offspring via thelytokous parthenogenesis and thus produce clones of themselves. Cape honey bees are found in South Africa, and while they look similar, they are reproductively different from other subspecies of honey bee. The Cape honeybee, Apis mellifera capensis, shows several unique features in relation to reproduction and pheromonal dominance, which makes it an excellent model system for understanding the evolution of reproductive dominance in social hymenoptera. The Cape Bees are also invasive bees which roam and invade the more prolific and productive Scutellata hives where they take over and eventually destroy the Scutellata swarm. 2009), workers lay unfertilized eggs that undergo a modified form of meiosis … However, it is ubiquitous in workers of the Cape honey bee Apis mellifera capensis. But the South African Cape honey bee (Apis mellifera capensis) can flaunt these rules. Springer Apis mellifera capensis. Cape honey bees are just the bees’ knees at reproduction. There are 20,000 species of honeybees across the planet but only one that has the ability to reproduce without a need for male bees. Thelytoky, the asexual production of females, is rare in honey bees. Female Cape worker honeybees are also the only honeybees that can reproduce asexually. Photo credit: Discott. The gene responsible for the phenomenon is GB45239, located on the eleventh chromosome of the bee. If a female worker from a Cape honey bee colony enters an East African lowland honey bee nest, she is not attacked, partly due to her resemblance to the East African lowland honey bee queen. The worker bees have an atrophic reproductive system. Asexual reproduction via thelytokous parthenogenesis is widespread in the Hymenoptera, but its genetic underpinnings have been described only twice. Apis mellifera capensis, commonly called the Cape honey bee or Cape bee, is a southern South African sub-species of the Western honey bee.Cape bee workers are uniquely able to lay diploid, female eggs, by means of thelytoky, whereas workers of other honey bee subspecies (and, in fact, unmated females of all other eusocial insects) are able to lay only haploid, male eggs. In a process of genetic trickery called thelytoky syndrome, worker bee females ignore the queen's orders and begin to reproduce on their own. Author links open overlay panel Boris Yagound 1 5 Kathleen A. Dogantzis 2 Amro Zayed 2 Julianne Lim 1 Paul Broekhuyse 1 Emily J. 25: 247-254. In: Engels W (ed) Social insects: an (2010) Maternity of emergency queens in the Cape honey bee, evolutionary approach to castes and reproduction. Thelytokous reproduction by Cape honeybee workers has been long known (Onions, 1912; reviewed in Hepburn and Radloff, 2002), ... A quantitative study of worker reproduction in queenright honey bee colonies. This rare, but not wholly unusual, form of reproduction also aids in another aspect of the Cape honey bee’s behavior. As a result, worker reproduction and tolerance towards worker-produced offspring is expected to be more permissive than in arrhenotokous … The ability to produce daughters asexually, known as “thelytokous parthenogenesis,” is restricted to a single subspecies inhabiting the Cape region of South Africa, the Cape honey bee, or Apis mellifera capensis. Laying workers of the Cape honeybee parthenogenetically produce female offspring, whereas queens typically produce males. 10 May 2020 - 00:00 . Behav Ecol Sociobiol. Several other traits distinguish them from other honey bee subspecies. One subspecies, the Cape honey bee, A. m. capensis (hereafter Capensis) is different. 39: 237. Remnant 1 Madeleine Beekman 1 Michael H. Allsopp 3 Sarah E. Aamidor 1 Orly Dim 4 Gabriele Buchmann 1 Benjamin P. Oldroyd 1. However, when a Capensis colony becomes queenless and during periods of reproductive swarming Beekman et al. Reproductive conflict in honey bees: a stalemate of worker egg-laying and policing. April Bamburg May 29, 2020. Dave Chambers Cape Town bureau chief. In a process of genetic trickery called thelytoky syndrome, worker bee females ignore the queen’s orders and begin to reproduce on their own. Reproduction of Honey Bees Reproduction system. The Cape honeybee is one of 28 subspecies of the Western honeybee (also known as the European honeybee) and in many ways it follows the same life cycle and biology as its relatives, however when it comes to reproduction, the Cape honeybee is unique amongst all honeybee subspecies. The Cape honey bee (Apis mellifera capensis) ... For three decades, scientists have sought to understand the genetics that underly the Cape honeybees’ unique reproduction. Cape Bees are unique in that the worker bees are able to reproduce their own kind through egg laying, whilst Scutellata does not do this. This situation is different in the Cape bee (A. m. capensis), a subspecies of honey bee found in South Africa . Reversions from sexual to asexual reproduction are rare. A new paper by Yagound et al. Cape honeybee gives researchers insight to asexual reproduction Life Sciences. 10 The Cape Honey Bee. Not all honeybees stick to the likable picture that is drawn of them: In South Africa, cape honeybees (A. mellifera capensis) can make a pseudoclone of themselves the next queen of a colony. The eggs of Cape worker honey bees develop into females, unlike other honey bee workers that lay eggs that develop into males. Beekman et al. Article Google Scholar In the wasp Lysiphlebus fabarum and the Cape honey bee Apis mellifera capensis the origin of thelytoky have each been traced to a single recessive locus. Derivation of scientific nameCarolus Linneaus named the honeybee in 1758. confirm this observation, which has repeatedly been reported over the last 100 years including the notion that natural selection should favor asexual reproduction in Apis mellifera capensis. Here, the honey bee genome substantially energized research on the genetics of thelytoky, and we appear to have finally solved this mystery after several missed steps. They will pass their own genome on to the next generation instead of providing support for the whole colony. Researchers have found that honeybees, native to South Africa, have a single gene that allows them to reproduce without sexual activity. This occurs via a process known as thelytoky, where two haploid products of meiosis fuse to form a diploid egg (Figure 1B). The South African honey bee (Cape Honey) is known for its strange ability to produce only female eggs in the form of asexual reproduction - a mysterious feature that science has not explained so far. the honey bee, Apis mellifera.Cape bees are distinct due to the ability of worker bees to lay unfertilised diploid eggs, which go on to develop into females. The Cape honey bee is a subspecies of the western honey bee often found along the southern coast of South Africa. Show more. 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