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Worker bees turn selfish to pass on dad’s genes
A study of worker honey bees suggests the genes they inherit from their queen—matrigenes—direct worker bees’ altruistic behavior. But when the queen dies, the genes they inherit from their fathers—patrigenes—direct them to selfishly compete with one another to lay eggs.
The findings provide strong support for the long-standing, but hotly debated, evolutionary theory of kin selection, which suggests that altruistic behavior occurs as a way to pass genes to the next generation.
“We usually think of honey bees as ideal cooperators, with all the members of the colony working together harmoniously,” says Christina Grozinger, professor of entomology at Penn State. “Our studies demonstrate that there is actually conflict—called intragenomic conflict—among the genes inherited from the father and those inherited from the mother.”
According to Grozinger, in a normal colony, the queen lays all the eggs and the workers remain sterile and help raise the queen’s offspring. When the queen dies, the workers either behave altruistically by remaining sterile and helping rear the remaining offspring and the new offspring of their sisters or they behave selfishly by activating their own ovaries and laying their own unfertilized eggs, which develop into males.
“In 2003, David Queller published a key model using kin selection theory that predicted that under queenless conditions in a honey bee colony, the patrigenes would promote selfish behavior in the workers, while the matrigenes would promote altruistic behavior,” says David Galbraith, postdoctoral scholar in entomology.
According to Queller, this conflict is the result of unequal distribution of the matrigenes and patrigenes among the workers.
When the queen dies
All the workers in the colony share the same set of matrigenes. In contrast, because the queen mated with 10 or more males, the workers have different patrigenes. If a worker behaves altruistically and helps rear her sisters’ offspring, she ensures that her matrigenes are passed on.
However, more of her patrigenes pass to the next generation if she behaves selfishly and lays her own eggs.
“It is very strange to think that your genes might be fighting with each other based on whether they came from your mother or your father,” says Queller. “Yet, this is just what we found. It turns out that when a queen dies, worker bees behave the way their fathers want them to, producing sons when possible.”
The results appear in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
According to Queller, this intragenomic conflict supports the theory of kin selection first proposed by William Hamilton in 1964. Altruism is defined as reducing one’s own reproductive output to help others reproduce. So kin selection theory predicts that altruism will only evolve to help related individuals.
Using kin selection theory, David Haig, a professor at Harvard University, developed models predicting intragenomic conflict, which Queller then extended to social insect societies.
In 2010, however, biologist E.O. Wilson and colleagues published a paper that argued kin selection is not needed for altruistic behavior to evolve.
“While Queller’s model made very specific predictions about the behavior of matrigenes and patrigenes in social insects, it was not possible to test this prediction until modern genomic tools were developed that allowed us to specifically track both matrigenes and patrigenes in the same individual,” says Grozinger.
Honey bee DNA
The researchers created 18 different male-female crosses of two different genetic stocks of honey bees—Africanized bees, which produce larger ovaries, and European bees, which produce smaller ovaries. The crosses enabled the workers to determine which of the genes—those from fathers versus those from mothers—were active in the offspring. The team housed the worker bee offspring without a queen, stimulating some to start producing eggs.
The researchers first demonstrated that worker bees with Africanized fathers and European mothers had larger ovaries and were more likely to become reproductively active than bees with European fathers and Africanized mothers. According to Grozinger, this demonstrated that the reproductive traits of the workers were more strongly influenced by their patrigenes than matrigenes.
“We identified more than 100,000 sections of DNA, called single nucleotide polymorphisms, that were present in the genomes of either the mother or the father, but not both,” says Galbraith. “This exercise enabled us to determine which pieces of RNA in their worker offspring were produced by the matrigenes versus patrigenes.”
Next, the researchers harvested workers bees’ ovaries and sequenced the entire set of RNA molecules to see which of their inherited genes were expressed to a greater extent.
“We found that expression of the patrigenes, but not matrigenes, was strongly associated with worker egg-laying behavior,” Galbraith says.
According to researchers, they next plan to explore intergenomic conflict in other systems.
“What is amazing about Queller’s model is that it provides very detailed predictions for how matrigenes and patrigenes behave in different social insect species and different contexts—in some cases, matrigenes are the selfish ones,” Grozinger adds.
Scientists from Princeton University, Purdue University, and Washington University in St. Louis collaborated on the study. The National Science Foundation and the John Templeton Foundation provided support.
Source: Penn State
"Kama vile tunavyojua, ""Mafunzo ya Uondoaji wa Nyuki"" ni huduma ya kuondoa nyuki na nyuki, ambayo inafanya kazi kwa siku 24 na siku moja, kwa kutumia simu ya simu ya 951-476-8495, ambayo inatoa huduma ya kuondoa nyuki na nyuki, ambayo inatoa huduma ya kuondoa nyuki na nyuki, na pia inaonyesha tabia ya kujitolea ya nyuki." Lakini malkia anapokufa, chembe za urithi wanazopokea kutoka kwa baba zao - mababu - huwaongoza kushindana kwa ubinafsi ili kuweka mayai. Utafiti huo unatoa msaada mkubwa kwa nadharia ya mageuzi ya kuchagua jamaa, ambayo inaonyesha kwamba tabia ya kujitolea hutokea kama njia ya kupitisha jeni kwa kizazi kijacho. "Kwa kawaida sisi huona nyuki wa asali kuwa washirika bora, na washiriki wote wa koloni hufanya kazi pamoja kwa upatano", asema Christina Grozinger, profesa wa entomolojia katika Chuo Kikuu cha Penn State. "Utafiti wetu unaonyesha kwamba kuna mgogoro kati ya jeni linalorithiwa kutoka kwa baba na lile linalorithiwa kutoka kwa mama. ""Kulingana na Grozinger, katika koloni ya kawaida, malkia huweka mayai yote na wafanyakazi hubaki bila kuzaa na kusaidia kukuza watoto wa malkia." Wakati malkia anakufa, wafanyakazi hujiendesha kwa njia ya kujitolea kwa kubaki bila kuzaa na kusaidia kulea watoto waliobaki na watoto wapya wa dada zao, au hujiendesha kwa ubinafsi kwa kuamsha ovari zao na kuweka mayai yao ambayo hayajazaliwa, ambayo yanaendelea kuwa wanaume. "Mwaka 2003, David Queller alichapisha mfano muhimu kwa kutumia nadharia ya uteuzi wa jamaa ambayo ilitabiri kwamba chini ya hali ya kuwa na malkia katika koloni ya nyuki wa asali, patrigenes itakuza tabia ya ubinafsi katika wafanyakazi, wakati matrigenes itakuza tabia ya kujitolea, ""alisema David Galbraith, msomi wa baada ya udaktari katika entomolojia." Kulingana na Queller, mgogoro huu ni matokeo ya usambazaji usio sawa wa matrigenes na patrigenes kati ya wafanyakazi. Malkia anapokufa Wafanyakazi wote katika koloni hushiriki seti ileile ya matrigens. Kwa upande mwingine, kwa sababu malkia alioa na wanaume kumi au zaidi, wafanyakazi wana familia tofauti. Ikiwa mfanyakazi ana tabia ya kujitolea na kusaidia kulea watoto wa dada zake, yeye huhakikisha kwamba matriigenes yake hupitishwa. Hata hivyo, wengi wa patrijeni zake hupitishwa kwa kizazi kifuatacho ikiwa yeye hujiendesha kwa ubinafsi na kuweka mayai yake mwenyewe. "Ni ajabu sana kufikiria kwamba jeni zako zinaweza kupigana na kila mmoja kulingana na kama zilitoka kwa mama yako au baba yako", anasema Queller. Hata hivyo, hii ni tu kile tulichokipata. "Kama malkia anakufa, nyuki wa kazi hujiendesha kama baba zao wanavyotaka, wakizaa wana wanavyowezekana, ""alisema utafiti uliochapishwa katika jarida la Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences." Kwa mujibu wa Quiller, mgogoro huu wa intragenomic unasaidia nadharia ya uteuzi wa jamaa iliyopendekezwa kwanza na William Hamilton mnamo 1964. Altruism hufafanuliwa kama kupunguza uzalishaji wa uzazi wa mtu mwenyewe ili kusaidia wengine kuzaliana. Kwa hiyo nadharia ya uteuzi wa jamaa inatabiri kwamba ujasiri utabadilika tu kusaidia watu walio na uhusiano. Kwa kutumia nadharia ya uteuzi wa jamaa, David Haig, profesa katika Chuo Kikuu cha Harvard, aliendeleza mifano ya kutabiri mgogoro wa ndani ya genome, ambayo Queller kisha akapanua kwa jamii za wadudu wa kijamii. Mwaka 2010, mwanabiolojia E. O. Wilson na wenzake walichapisha karatasi ambayo ilisema uteuzi wa jamaa hauhitajiwa kwa tabia ya kujitolea kubadilika. "Wakati mfano wa Queller ulifanya utabiri maalum sana juu ya tabia ya matrigenes na patrigenes katika wadudu wa kijamii, haikuwezekana kujaribu utabiri huu hadi zana za kisasa za genomic zilipobuniwa ambazo zilituwezesha kufuatilia maalum matrigenes na patrigenes katika mtu mmoja, "Grozinger anasema." Watafiti waliunda msalaba wa 18 tofauti wa kiume na kike wa aina mbili tofauti za nyuki wa asali: nyuki wa Afrika, ambao hutengeneza ovari kubwa, na nyuki wa Ulaya, ambao hutengeneza ovari ndogo. Msalaba huo uliwawezesha wafanyakazi hao kuamua ni chembe zipi za urithi - zile za baba dhidi ya zile za mama - zilizokuwa zikifanya kazi katika watoto. Timu hiyo iliweka watoto wa nyuki wafanyakazi bila malkia, na hivyo kuwachochea wengine kuanza kuzaa mayai. Watafiti walipata kwamba nyuki wa kazi wenye baba wa Kiafrika na mama wa Ulaya walikuwa na ovari kubwa na walikuwa na uwezekano mkubwa wa kuwa na uwezo wa kuzaliana kuliko nyuki wenye baba wa Ulaya na mama wa Kiafrika. Kulingana na Grozinger, hilo lilionyesha kwamba tabia za uzazi za wafanyakazi ziliathiriwa sana na wazazi wao kuliko wazazi wa kambo. "Tuliweza kutambua sehemu zaidi ya 100,000 za DNA, zinazoitwa single nucleotide polymorphisms, ambazo zilikuwapo katika genomes ya mama au baba, lakini si zote mbili, ""Galbraith anasema." "Mfano wa utafiti huo ni ""kuchunguza ni aina gani ya RNA inayotokana na matriogenes na patrigenes"" na ""kuchunguza ni aina gani ya RNA inayotokana na matriogenes na patrigenes.""" "Tuligundua kwamba usemi wa patrigenes, lakini si matrigenes, ulihusianishwa sana na tabia ya kuweka mayai ya mfanyakazi", Galbraith anasema. Kulingana na watafiti, wao sasa wanapanga kuchunguza mgogoro wa kati ya genomi katika mifumo mingine. "Kile cha kushangaza kuhusu mfano wa Queller ni kwamba hutoa utabiri wa kina sana wa jinsi matrigenes na patrigenes wanavyojiendesha katika spishi tofauti za wadudu wa kijamii na muktadha tofauti. Katika visa fulani, matrigenes ni za ubinafsi, "Grozinger anaongeza. Wanasayansi kutoka Chuo Kikuu cha Princeton, Chuo Kikuu cha Purdue, na Chuo Kikuu cha Washington huko St. Louis walishirikiana katika utafiti huo. Shirika la Sayansi la Kitaifa na Shirika la John Templeton lilitoa msaada. Chanzo: Penn State