Understanding Parthenogenesis in Honey Bees

Parthenogenesis is a form of asexual reproduction where offspring develop from unfertilized eggs. In honey bees:

• Drones (males) are naturally produced parthenogenetically and are haploid, carrying only the genetic material from their mother (the queen).

• Workers (females) are typically produced sexually, receiving half their genes from the queen and half from a drone.

If workers began reproducing parthenogenetically, their offspring would also be haploid males, inheriting genetic material solely from the worker mother.

Genetic Similarity: Parthenogenetic Offspring

When an organism reproduces parthenogenetically:

• Offspring are genetically identical to the mother (except for mutations).

• All offspring from the same mother are clones of each other.

• In the case of honey bee workers, each worker’s parthenogenetic offspring would be highly similar to the mother and to each other.

Comparison to Queen and Father

• The queen is the mother of the workers but, due to sexual reproduction, workers only share about 50% of their genes with the queen.

• The father (drone) only contributes genes to female offspring through sexual reproduction; parthenogenetic offspring do not inherit any paternal genes.

Why Workers Would Resemble Each Other and Their Mother

If all worker bees in a colony started producing offspring parthenogenetically:

• Each worker’s offspring would be nearly identical to that worker.

• All offspring from the same worker would resemble each other.

• Since the worker is a daughter of the queen, the offspring would be more similar to the worker than to the queen.

• There would be no genetic contribution from a father.

Conclusion

If honey bee workers began reproducing parthenogenetically, the resulting offspring would most likely resemble each other and their mother (the worker), due to the direct inheritance of the worker’s genetic material without any mixing from another parent.

Correct answer: (1) Among themselves and with mother