Cape honeybee gives researchers insight to asexual reproduction

Researchers have found that honeybees, native to South Africa, have a single gene that allows them to reproduce without sexual activity.

That gene is located on chromosome 11 and is called GB45239.  

Professor Benjamin Oldroyd, a behavioral geneticist at the School of Life and Environmental Sciences from the University of Sydney said that they’ve solved a mystery.

"It is extremely exciting. Scientists have been looking for this gene for the last 30 years,” said Oldroyd. "Sex is a weird way to reproduce and yet it is the most common form of reproduction for animals and plants on the planet. It's a major biological mystery why there is so much sex going on and it doesn't make evolutionary sense. Asexuality is a much more efficient way to reproduce, and every now and then we see a species revert to it."

Oldroyd noted that for Cape honeybees, any worker can be reincarnated as the next queen, which can cause problems within the hive. But that’s not the only thing that makes the Cape honeybee different.

“When a colony loses its queen the workers fight and compete to be the mother of the next queen," Professor Oldroyd said. The worker bees from Cape hives can also invade other bee colonies, start laying eggs and convince the invaded hosts to feed the larvae. This is called social parasite behavior.

It’s only with modern scientific tools that researchers have been able to learn more about the gene that allows for virgin births. Perhaps in the future, researchers will be able to learn more about how the gene works.

"If we could control a switch that allows animals to reproduce asexually, that would have important applications in agriculture, biotechnology and many other fields," Professor Oldroyd said.