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Date: | Wed, 15 Aug 2007 07:59:24 -0400 |
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Peter Edwards wrote:
> Timothy wrote:
>> I don't think this is necessarily true, because if you get *two*
>> Varroa mites entering a single cell, then the male offspring of each
>> one can mate with the female offspring of the other...
>
> This is irrelevant in a clonal animal as the *two* mites will carry
> the same genes.
>
Isn't that assuming that all of the mites in the colony do, in fact,
carry the same genes? This might be true if the colony had recently
been infested by a single mite (or a group of sisters) and there had
been no time for mutations to accumulate. But, as I understand it there
is regular interchange of mites between colonies as bees drift from one
to another, and so genetic lines from anywhere in the apiary can get
into any one of the colonies. Also, as time passes there will be new
mutations arising, so even if an entire apiary started out with mites
that were all perfect clones of each other, after a couple of years
there would be some non-trivial variations.
Just to be clear, I am not saying that there is a lot of genetic
variation, and I agree that, most of the time, mite reproduction is a
lot like cloning because it is mostly brother/sister mating. All I am
saying is that, when a genetic difference due to mutation does arise in
one line, there are some opportunities for that mutation to be spread to
other lines, and so mite reproduction is not pure cloning. Any
discussion of mite adaptations should therefore take this into account.
--
Tim Eisele
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