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Christmas MJ, Smith NMA, Oldroyd BP, Webster MT
Mol. Biol. Evol. 36 (8) 1764-1767 [2019-08-01; online 2019-04-28]
The Cape bee (Apis mellifera capensis) is a subspecies of the honeybee, in which workers commonly lay diploid unfertilized eggs via a process known as thelytoky. A recent study aimed to map the genetic basis of this trait in the progeny of a single capensis queen where workers laid either diploid (thelytokous) or haploid (arrhenotokous) eggs. A nonsynonymous single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in a gene of unknown function was reported to be strongly associated with thelytoky in this colony. Here, we analyze genome sequences from a global sample of A. mellifera and identify populations where the proposed thelytoky allele at this SNP is common but thelytoky is absent. We also analyze genome sequences of three capensis queens produced by thelytoky and find that, contrary to predictions, they do not carry the proposed thelytoky allele. The proposed SNP is therefore neither sufficient nor required to produce thelytoky in A. mellifera.
PubMed 31028394
DOI 10.1093/molbev/msz100
Crossref 10.1093/molbev/msz100
pii: 5480300