The genetics of Anarchy

A study of honeybee 'anarchy' has uncovered several regions of the genome that influence cheating behaviour.

This story has been retracted.

For more information about the research please refer to:

• The genetics of anarchy
Genetics doi: 10.1534/genetics.108.087270 (2008)
A study of honeybee ‘anarchy’ has uncovered several regions of the genome that influence cheating behaviour. Honeybee (Apis mellifera; pictured right) queens emit a pheromone to ‘switch off ’ the ovaries of female worker bees, but some individuals are more sensitive to the pheromone than others. Those who fail to respond are branded anarchists because they disrupt the social order of the hive. Peter Oxley of the University of Sydney, Australia, and his colleagues tracked down regions of the genome that have a role in ovary activation. They found four such regions that together account for 25% of the variation in this trait observed in the population of honeybees they studied.
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v454/n7200/full/454004c.html

• Four quantitative trait loci that influence worker sterility in the honeybee (Apis mellifera), pp. 1337-1343
Peter R. Oxley, Graham J. Thompson and Benjamin P. Oldroyd
Worker sterility in social insects is one of the most dramatic examples of genetically determined altruism, yet there are no candidates for genes that control this behavior. Using a line of honeybees with the rare property of highly fecund workers, these authors find evidence for genes that cause selfish cheating behavior in a social animal.
http://www.genetics.org/cgi/content/abstract/179/3/1337

   

• tigger - Jun 20, 2008
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  Richard Dawkins is a legend. Nuff said.
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• HenisDov - Jun 21, 2008
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  Culture Imprints Genetics, In Bees Too
  
  http://www.physor...776.html
  
  Genes, Earth's primal organisms even when interdependent members of their genome communal cooperative, evolve in response to their survival survival requirements, which is THEIR CULTURE.
  
  Darwinism starts with pre-Archaea genes:
  
  From http://blog.360.y...Q--?cq=1]http://blog.360.y...Q--?cq=1[/url]&p=409
  
  - Genes are organisms, interdependent members of genes communes, genomes, all continuously undergoing evolution directed towards survival as long as possible, for maintaining Earth's biosphere as long as possible.
  
  - Culture is a ubiquitous biological entity and is the major effector of genetic evolution, of capabilities and attributes selected for survival.
  
  - The major course of natural selection is NOT via random mutations followed by survival, but via interdependent, interactive and interenhencing selection of biased replication routes by genes at their alternative-splicing-steps junctions, effected by the cultural feedback of the second stratum multicells organism or monocells community to their prime stratum genes-genome organisms.
  
  
  Dov Henis
  
  http://blog.360.y...Q--?cq=1]http://blog.360.y...Q--?cq=1[/url]&p=372
  
  
  Puzzled why even Darwinians do not comprehend that Darwinism starts all the way back with Life's day one, with the pre-archaea not-yet-genomed-celled genes...
  
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• KB6 - Jun 21, 2008
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  But how "selfish" can genes be when they ultimately render themselves obsolete?
  
  "Homo Sapiens, the first truly free species, is about to decommission natural selection, the force that made us... Soon we must look deep within ourselves and decide what we wish to become."
  - Edward O. Wilson
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• COCO - Jun 24, 2008
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  Entire organizations can be affected e.g. the Bush adminstration - the U of Toronto. Let us hold a telethon for ME!!!!!!!!
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• mabarker - Jul 24, 2008
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  Was the ethereal s.g. really found? "We don't know exactly which gene it is, but we're getting close."
  Meanwhile everybody should calm down. This story has exactly nothing to do with macroevolution. dawkins and his fellow secular scientists need to show how DNA arose via chance, time and natural processes - wi/o the aid of repair enzymes. KB6 quoted from creation-basher & quasi-philosopher E.O. Wilson who spoke about the "force" that made us: natural selection. Four of his fellow atheists disagree with him, Natural selection can act only on those biological properties that already exist; it cannot create properties in order to meet adaptational needs. - Noble, Noble, Schad, MacInnes, Parasitology, Lea & Febiger, 1989, p. 516.
  
  
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