Single bee is making an immortal clone army thanks to a genetic fluke

[UpInArms]

Last edited Sun Jun 27, 2021, 07:11 PM - Edit history (1)

When hives of the African lowland honeybee (Apis mellifera scutella) collapse, they do so because of an invisible inner threat: the growing, immortal clone army of a rival bee subspecies.

That army is possible because the female workers of the rival subspecies — the South African Cape honeybee (Apis mellifera capensis) — can create perfect copies of themselves, with one individual found to have done so millions of times in the past three decades. With this perpetual-cloning ability, the Cape honeybees sneak into the hives of their lowland honeybee rivals and churn out copy after copy (no need for a queen). Even worse, these clones are freeloaders, refusing to do any work.

Now, a new study has revealed the genetic foundations of the strange and formidable adaptation. Unlike most animals, and even their own queen, the female workers do not reshuffle the DNA of the eggs they lay. This enables the workers to consistently recreate a perfect copy of themselves — a clone — each time they reproduce. According to the researchers, the sidestepping of this DNA-reshuffling process is unlike anything they've ever seen.

… snip …

"The Cape bee clones don't do any work inside those hives because they've become reproductive," Oldroyd said. "They just strut around with this attitude like, 'Yeah, you're going to work for me.' It very quickly leads to the collapse of the hive. As individuals, these clones are quite dysfunctional, so you'd expect them to peter out. But they're a lot like the cells in a tumor in this regard — it doesn't matter if every clone is healthy, so long as enough of them are around to exploit the host."

More at:

https://www.livescience.com/bee-creates-perfect-clone-army.html

[littlemissmartypants]

1. You have a duplicate, two paragraphs starting with "That army" eom

[UpInArms]

5. Fixed ..

[Control-Z]

2. What impact does this have on pollination? eom

[SWBTATTReg]

3. Ha, I laughed when I read this sentence ...

"Even worse, these clones are freeloaders, refusing to do any work." and thought immediately of the clones in the republican party, they all seem to duplicate themselves by the thousands (white angry males, all discriminated against of course in some ways or other)...

Lazy asses, really, if you ask me. They moan and gripe about literally everything, and then of course don't do a damn thing about it, or better yet, they sneak in and take away more and more of the rights of Americans (voter rights etc.), all while moaning about government excesses etc. (and they're the ones doing it).

You have to watch these thugs every step of the way, after all, they are not letting us into their private parties, their private conferences, etc. where they establish policy or such, based on ALEC edicts, why are they so secretive?

[getagrip_already]

4. and it eventually leads to the death of the colony.....

I'm sure they don't see the connection. They would call it critical race theory and ban it.

[Judi Lynn]

6. So strange! WTF! Had no idea this is possible. Thank you, UpInArms.

Someone needs to have a talk with these bee clones. 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝