Shift work has a genetic basis in honeybee pollen foragers (Apis mellifera L.).
Behav Genet
; 41(2): 323-8, 2011 Mar.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-20640499
ABSTRACT
Division of labour is a fundamental property of any social system. The specialization of different individuals in different tasks increases the overall work performance and efficiency. Specialization is thought to be the very foundation of the success of human societies but also in complex colonies of social insects. In human societies an advanced form of division of labour, especially since the industrialisation, is shift work, where individuals perform the same task but in subsequent cohorts in time. Although social insects can measure and are aware of time, shift work has not been documented in colonies of social insects so far. We observed foragers of two honeybee (Apis mellifera) colonies (approximately 140 workers each) and genotyped them with microsatellite DNA markers. We determined paternity and assigned them to the various subfamilies in the colony to test whether there is genetic variance for shift work in foraging honeybees. We could show that the patriline identity of the foragers had a significant effect on foraging either in the morning or evening. Individual foragers differed in their preference for the "early" or "late" shift, and shift work indeed existed in the colony.
Texto completo:
1
Coleções:
01-internacional
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Pólen
/
Abelhas
Tipo de estudo:
Etiology_studies
/
Incidence_studies
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Observational_studies
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Prognostic_studies
/
Risk_factors_studies
Limite:
Animals
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Behav Genet
Ano de publicação:
2011
Tipo de documento:
Article
País de afiliação:
Alemanha