ROW: DNA Fingerprinting of an Halictine Bee

蜂群动力学和蜂王与工蜂之间关于雄性后代生产的冲突是膜翅目昆虫（蚂蚁、黄蜂和蜜蜂）社会系统研究的核心问题。工蜂（和蜂后）的成功很大程度上受到工蜂直接繁殖的影响。如果一个群居物种的群体通常包括直接繁殖的工蜂，那么为了理解控制工蜂产卵的近似机制，能够从形态学和行为学两个方面描述这些工蜂是非常重要的。为了做到这一点，有必要明确地识别产卵工人，并清楚地量化它们产生的产卵量。一种分子遗传学技术，DNA“指纹”，可以用来获取必要的信息。DNA“指纹”是DNA片段的个别特定模式，可以用来确定哪个雌性是一个群体所产生的任何后代的母亲。将这些独特的可遗传的DNA模式（“指纹”）在雌性和它们共同抚养的后代之间进行比较，将被用来精确地确定哪个雌性是哪个后代的母亲。这些信息将与行为和形态数据相结合，用于研究工人繁殖的近似控制，以了解社会系统的进化。

Colony dynamics and conflict between queens and workers over the production of male brood are central issues in the study of social systems in the Hymenoptera (ants, wasps and bees). Success of workers (and of the queen) is heavily influenced by direct, worker reproduction. If colonies in a social species typically include workers that are reproducing directly, it is of great importance to be able to characterize those workers in both morphological and behavioral terms in order to understand the proximate mechanisms controlling worker egg laying. In order to do this it is necessary to unambiguously identify laying workers and also to clearly quantify the brood they produce. A molecular genetics technique, DNA "fingerprinting", can be used to obtain the necessary information. DNA "fingerprints" are individually specific patterns of DNA fragments that can be used to determine which female is the mother of any of the offspring produced by a colony. Comparison of these distinctive yet heritable DNA patterns ("fingerprints") among females and the offspring they jointly rear will be used to determine precisely which females are the mothers of which offspring. This information will be used in combination with behavioral and morphological data to investigate the proximate control of worker reproduction with the overall aim of understanding the evolution of social systems.