quote:
Ascribing a genetic change in the bees in essence says that you can go from
a set DNA sequence to a new one in two generations and flip right back in
the same amount of time. And the queen is changing the sequence!

reply:
This is what I have been saying all along. To get *actual* changes in honey
bee types requires a very long time and a high degree of isolation.
Evolution did not create the Italians and the Carniolans from the same
ancestors *overnight*. They developed in separate regions and were
presumably isolated geographically for many thousands of years.

Now, breeding attempts to accelerate the process of differentiation, but you
can only do so much. It may take decades instead of thousands of years, but
you won't get far in a few generations. Furthermore, honey bees naturally
outcross in order to prevent inbreeding. When people do line breeding with
instrumental insemination, the first thing to go is brood viability.

I have seen "pure" SMR lines that were so weak they couldn't build up past
three or four combs. Maybe they didn't have mites! -- but they were useless
except as breeders (and almost useless for that). Researchers have to keep
on outcrossing the lines to prevent loss of vigor; but when they do, they
lose much of the progress they made in developing the trait.

Maybe someone will find a gene for mite resistance, who knows? Genetic
engineering ratchets the whole evolution thing up another notch. But I doubt
the bee industry is interested in the bad publicity they would get if they
started raising GM bees.

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