Drone Genetics

[snoop]

People keep telling me that the docile gene comes from the drone so if you wanted to quieten the strain of bee you have you need to make sure there are plenty of drones from the quiet strain in the area.

Where will I find this information & what other traits does the drone genes carry apart from colour

 

[Scutellator]

When crossing two very docile strains not always the results are docile bees (sometimes they are unmanageable). The opposite is also true.

Sometimes, to make some bad tempered bees quiet, you may have to cross them with even more aggressive bees.

The temper is quantitative trait and is determined by many genes (as almost everything else with the bee) and it does depend on both parrents (the fact that the colony is consisted by two generations complicates the things further).


Snoop, I really dont know where to find the information you asked.
From genetic point of view the drone is female (it represents its mother).

 

[Hivemaker.]

You may find something interesting regards drones and genetics in the link below.
http://www.glenn-apiaries.com/genetic_aspects_queen_production_1.html

 

[Scutellator]

and the last page

http://www.glenn-apiaries.com/genetic_aspects_queen_production_4.html

 

[Poly Hive]

I read recently there are some 10 genes involved in temperament.

PH

 

[buzz lightyear]

As I understand it.with respect to genetics. quite simply there are more combinations than just 2. i.e. aggressive / non aggressive etc....Think about it, no two human individuals are the same, the reason? Because of the multiple combination of genetic possibilities. The key to selective breeding is to limit the combinations to increase the possibility of the positive traits coming through.

Buzz

 

[DanBee]

People keep telling me that the docile gene comes from the drone so if you wanted to quieten the strain of bee you have you need to make sure there are plenty of drones from the quiet strain in the area.

Where will I find this information & what other traits does the drone genes carry apart from colour

It's expressed in exactly these terms in Simmins' A Modern Bee Farm from 1928, but as a book it is very outdated and portrays Simmins as a determined advocate of his own methods, equipment, and line of cross-bred stock.

I don't know of any more modern explicit references off the top of my head but I happened to be reading this one around Christmas time. I have Laidlaw's Contemporary Queen Rearing and Atkinson's Background to Bee Breeding to hand and neither seems to mention this under 'drones', 'temper', or 'stock improvement'.

 

[oliver90owner]

There are discrete yes or no genes ('loose' ear lobes or joined-on; either can roll your tongue or cannot; blue or brown eyes (in the most simplistic form); sex - male or female (not quite the same as the others a sthis is dealt with by a whole chromosone being present or not).

Then there are continuous genetic variations such as height (short, tall, or anywhere in between).

Then there might be other things which affect the variation which are not genetic - the environmental factors (diet, for instance might affect height).

DrS is eminently more qualified to explain, but that is the 'bare bones' of it.

We, as humans, are all different because only about 50% are male and about 50% are female. Split each of those 'groups' into eye colour and we have more variant options; taking into account other discrete genetic possibilities gives a huge number of possible combinations without even addressing the continuous characteristics.

The drones are actually half their mother, as they are haploid and mum is diploid, but remember half of her genes came from her dad and the drones are a mixture of 'dad' genes and 'mum' genes because the drone genes were produced by meiotic cell division (basically mixing of genes and finishing with that haploid state of half the diploid chromosone count (whereas mitotic cell division results in two cloned cells - each identical to the other).

So, like Skyhook says, it's a bit more complicated than that!

Regards, RAB

 

[drstitson]

"sex - male or female (not quite the same as the others as this is dealt with by a whole chromosone being present or not).:

Yes and No.

although the physical mechanism by which mammalian sex is determined involves the inheritance or not of the Y chromosome and not the number of sex chromosomes - XX F, XY M, X0 F, XXY M etc. - this is just the vehicle by which sex is determined. It all comes down to a single gene (SRY - Sex determining Region Y chromosome). If you have a single copy of SRY anywhere within your genome you will be phenotypically male as it is the master switch and all you need to make the decision in utero.

 

[Bcrazy]

Must see if there's anything about drones in the book which I am now reading
Bee Genetics and Breeding by Thomas E. Rinderer. If there is I'll be back!

Mo

 

[MuswellMetro]

People keep telling me that the docile gene comes from the drone so if you wanted to quieten the strain of bee you have you need to make sure there are plenty of drones from the quiet strain in the area.

I have just culled a hive and nuc for that very reason, two other hives are being requeened with calmer Italian stock queens, i

we have moved to a new apiary on farm land about fours miles from other apaires were we had no problems but at the new apaairy and the new queen crosses are follower and getting worse

we are trying an reduce the drone pool contribution from the aggressive hives, we have been drone culling the drones in the hives to be requeened

Most bees in our other area are brown or yellow iatlaian ( north london) with the odd grey grizzly carnolion,

it is strange having visited local apiarys within half a mile and they have calm brown bees, no problem with requeening

 

[susbees]

I'm almost positive it isn't the current generation drones that have anything to do with it but the last generation drones.

 

[Bcrazy]

I'm almost positive it isn't the current generation drones that have anything to do with it but the last generation drones.



That's a very clever observation!
The drones of now -a -day are ready to mate with a virgin queen so play no part in the outcome of bees being breed now by the laying queen.
Mo

 

[Scutellator]

An interesting paper:

Hunt, G. J.a, S.D. Kocherb, J.M. Tsurudaa, C. Emorea, M.E.
Arechavaleta-Velascoc, C. Robles-Riosc, C. Grozingerd, D.C.
Queller & J. Strassman.e PARENT-OF-ORIGIN EFFECTS
ON GENE EXPRESSION IN LARVAL AND ADULT HONEY
BEES.

"The results indicate an overwhelming tendency towards
maternally biased transcription. Approximately 150 transcripts
showed a significant parental bias in larvae and 100 transcripts
showed a PoO effect in the adult workers. In both life stages 91%
of the transcripts showing a parental effect were biased towards the
maternal allele. In contrast, about 60% of mammalian genes that are
known to be parentally biased show a maternal effect. A paternal
bias could potentially give an advantage to one subfamily over
others. A maternal bias may in general be better for the whole colony
fitness."