title: Asexually produced Cape honeybee queens (Apis mellifera capensis) reproduce sexually.
abstract: Unmated workers of the Cape honeybee Apis mellifera capensis can produce female offspring including daughter queens. As worker-laid queens are produced asexually, we wondered whether these asexually produced individuals reproduce asexually or sexually. We sampled 11 colonies headed by queens known to be the clonal offspring of workers and genotyped 23 worker offspring from each queen at 5 microsatellite loci. Without exception, asexually produced queens produced female worker offspring sexually. In addition, we report the replacement of a queen by her asexually produced granddaughter, with this asexually produced queen also producing offspring sexually. Hence, once a female larva is raised as a queen, mating and sexual reproduction appears to be obligatory in this subspecies, despite the fact that worker-laid queens are derived from asexual lineages.
authors.affiliation: Behaviour and Genetics of Social Insects Lab, School of Biological Sciences A12, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia. madeleine.beekman@sydney.edu.au
authors.forename: Madeleine
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Beekman
authors.forename: Michael H
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Allsopp
authors.forename: Julianne
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lim
authors.forename: Frances
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Goudie
authors.forename: Benjamin P
authors.initials: BP
authors.lastname: Oldroyd
mesh_terms: D000483:Alleles; D000818:Animals; D001516:Bees / Q000235:genetics*; D005260:Female; D056426:Genetic Loci; D005828:Genetics, Population; D005838:Genotype; D008297:Male; D018895:Microsatellite Repeats / Q000235:genetics; D012098:Reproduction / Q000235:genetics; D012100:Reproduction, Asexual; D012726:Sexual Behavior, Animal