Reproductive technologies in the honeybee (Apis mellifera)

Abstract Honeybees and bee products have been part of human life for more than 8000 years. There are archeological proofs of first beekeeping techniques and bee colony migrations from the Iron Age. Reproductive technologies in honeybees have their peculiarities in comparison to other managed animals. Honeybees are social insects and live in tight societies, called colonies. From a perspective of a beekeeper, such colony—rather than an individual—is the unit that is usually being managed. The colony consists of several thousand individuals, the majority of them being female workers. There is only one female that is an active participant in reproduction—the queen bee. The difference between workers and queen stems from the dietary difference in the early stages of larval life. The queen bee mates once in life with several males termed drones during one or several mating flights. The sperm, collected during these flights, is stored in the spermatheca, a specialized organ that keeps sperm viable for the duration of queen’s life. Due to polyandric behavior, the colony consists of several patrilines, giving rise to supersisters and half-sisters. Drones, however, are haploid and are developed from unfertilized eggs, carrying only maternal genetic material. Reproduction in honeybees is characterized by two distinct aspects: (1) reproduction of colonies, of which the most known is swarming, and (2) reproduction of individuals. Honeybee colony is always headed by a queen bee. While the colony can rear itself another queen bee if suitable brood is present, colonies headed by such queens cannot be expected to show any genetic progress in economically important traits, such as honey yield. Therefore queen rearing and breeding represent an important part of beekeeping. Queen breeders select the colonies to be the source of genetic material for future generations based on the performance testing, and breeding programs offer support in standardization of performance testing and design of the pedigree.