Haplo-Diploidy Honey Bee Genetics

A simplified explanation of sex determination in honey bees and how members of a honey bee colony are related to each other.
Presented by the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture, Cooperative Extension Service. For more information on honey bees and beekeeping, visit our website at uaex.edu/bees.

[@northatlantic2723]

Very well explained! I had to rewind a bit though, because I got distracted by how you seem to scribble backwards onto my screen :-)

[@dmartin1920]

My question - can you read/write backwards or are you using a software trick. INCREDIBLY either way!

[@overlycreative1]

A very important discussion for all bee keepers, thank you for posting.

[@trentsmith3672]

Thank you for this exceptional presentation on genetics.

[@leighgilbert1420]

Fantastic video! Thank you!

[@cometsun]

thank you for the great video! i read somewhere that they were more closely related to sisters but was failing to understand how before this video

[@alexpigeon692]

this is exactly what I was looking for, thank you

[@BarefootBeekeeper]

Nicely done!

[@dylanringwood8817]

Excellent video.

[@kenthompson6539]

Thanks from Ireland.

[@emmarose3421]

very easy to understand! helped alot, thanks :D

[@KillTheFace55]

What I want to know next is how long it took to learn to write backwards

[@faridabts8439]

It's a sharing bord 😂😂😂

[@crimony3054]

Bees tend to do well with any laying queen if they are queenless. They also quickly accept new bees and brood from other hives. Most people who sell bee packages sell bees with a queen that are not related, and the new pairing of queen to workers quicky gets busy repopulating.

[@uaexbeekeeping4663]

Yes, the honey bees, unlike many people, recognize that it's very productive to be too loyal only to a certain small group, and they accomplish far more when they get along and cooperate.

[@fasiha1]

Which gene is responsible for sex determination in bees?

[@Rainbowfish118]

There is a third sex a Triploid bee !! 4.00

[@marybethputz1691]

What is the relatedness between 2 brothers? .5 or .25?

[@uaexbeekeeping4663]

Good question. Since the drones have no father, they get all their genes from the queen bee. On average, brother drones are 50% related.

[@taranjitkaur1854]

What would be the math for this one? Do you have to multiply and add here?

[@uaexbeekeeping4663]

There is no math to do. It's a mathematical average, based on probability of two choices (one of each pair of homologous chromosomes). Just like workers from the same queen, who have different drone fathers, drones share approximately 50% identical maternal DNA. Since drones have no fathers, there is no other 50% paternal DNA like the workers would have.

[@uaexbeekeeping4663]

@@nated939 True, but that is still a 50% average.

[@pawepawe5022]

Where the other 25% disappeared? If super sisters inherit 50% from father why only 25% from mother ?

[@zomebody]

Each worker bee inherits 50% of her DNA from her mother, and 50% from her father. Because drones are haploid, their sperm is all identical, and workers with the same father share all the same DNA from their father's genetic contribution. But because a queen is diploid, her eggs undergo reduction division to create haploid gametes. The resulting workers still receive 50% of their total DNA from their mother, but they share only 25% of those genes with any other particular sister. That's a mathematical average, and not necessarily precise between all individual sisters. Read up on Mendel's Law of Independent Assortment to see how those chromosomes separate.

[@TheSkaarup90]

Is it only me who thinks about how he writes backwards

[@Jaydon_Perez]

@@Luckyrasberry This is what I was thinking. It helps this case a little that he is writing with his left hand which when flipped would make him right handed. Or he could just be a lefty that is really good at writing inverted.

[@kayalvizhi7611]

@@Luckyrasberry this comment has me cracking up 😭😭😭 I love how the direction of his hair parting is the top most concern on a 15 min video ab bee genetics

[@rthmjohn]

How can drones who are haploid be 100% related to the queen who is diploid? Shouldn't drones only be 50% related to the queen?

[@uaexbeekeeping4663]

A drone only has half the number of chromosomes as a worker or queen, but he still gets 100% of them from his mother. His mother only donates 50% of her genes to any given drone. If you shuffle a deck of cards and deal them all out to two people, each hand contains only 50% of the cards. But 100% of the cards in each hand is from the same deck.

[@rthmjohn]

@@uaexbeekeeping4663 Thanks for the reply!

[@Freedomofchoice123]

@@uaexbeekeeping4663 That is wrong! A drone is only 50% related to his Mother!

[@zomebody]

@@Freedomofchoice123 A drone gets all of his genes from his mother. 100% of them are from his mother because he has no father. If he were only 50% related to his mother, where would the other 50% of his genes come from?

[@Freedomofchoice123]

@@zomebody During Meiosis a Diploid cell(having 100%genes) will become haploid(having 50% genes) this haploid cell by parthenogenesis will become a drone. Please read Wikipedia article on Haplo-diploidy in that at last there is a table called "Degree of relatedness" you'll see that Queens and drones are 50% related.

[@bakereyeinstitutedavidlitt167]

Great presentation by someone exceptional in his field. I don't agree however with the preservation of the genetics and Darwin influence in bees. If the bee mates with 14 drones, then only 1/14 of the workers are "super sisters" with 75% genetics common. The overall genetics in common of the hive as a whole would be far less (13/14th), and less chance for a worker to pass its genetic code. Ironically Darwin almost gave up his theory of evolution because of bees: it just didn't fit..so many holes in his theories. Grateful to have exceptional people like Dr Zawislak in Arkansas David Baker MD (bee keeper)

[@uaexbeekeeping4663]

It's all about probability. Even though there are many paternal genetic lines in a colony, every worker shares the same mother, and (on average) at least 25% identical DNA. If a worker produces her own offspring (drones), there are very low odds (less than 0.1%) that one of her sons will successfully mate. And if he is successful, he will contribute only 50% of his mother's genes to about 7% of the resulting colony. However, if a worker bee helps her own sister to become a queen, then even though she is only 37.5% related (as a supers sister) or 25% related (as a sub-sister - which is more likely), then the portion of her identical genes that her sister-queen carries will be passed on to EVERY bee in the next generation (up to half a million or more offspring).

[@derricklewis6724]

@@uaexbeekeeping4663 but if it's about passing along their own genetic line, why will a honeybee colony almost always accept a laying queen, usually even an unrelated virgin or eggs/queen cells from another colony, when queenless?

[@gordonspond8223]

Now explain the odds of potato getting 81 million legitimate votes...

[@antoniotador9850]

the calculation of the proportion of gene shared with each sisters is not well explained

[@mohammadintiyaz]

Holy Quran chapter 16 is "The Bee" Quran revealed 14 centuries ago.

[@ommastfa2733]

Glory be to God, Surah An-Nahl in the book of Muslims is mentioned number 16 and is a multiple of the number 16