Conflict and Cooperation in Honey Bee Reproduction

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In a honey bee colony, the workers are physiologically capable of laying eggs that develop into males, but in colonies with a queen nearly all reproduction, both males and females, is through the queen. This seemingly conflicts with the genetic interest of individual workers, who are more closely related to their own sons than to their mother's sons, and might thus gain greater evolutionary fitness by laying eggs themselves. Dr. Visscher's research will examine what interactions underlie the lack of worker reproduction, and will test the hypothesis that this colony-level cooperation in reproduction is the result of mutual "policing" by sister workers. "Policing," or bees preventing the reproduction of their sisters in favor of their mother, may raise the costs and lower the potential benefits of attempting personal reproduction, so that the inherently conflicting interests of workers are realigned. This "forced cooperation" in turn would facilitate further evolution of cooperative behavior, enhancing selection for workers to increase their inclusive fitness by increasing colony resources through cooperation, rather than manipulating colony resources toward their personal reproduction. Honey bees are of economic importance as producers of honey and especially as pollinators of many agricultural crops. Dr. Visscher's research will contribute to knowlege of their reproductive biology, which may prove useful in bee breeding or in genetic control of honey bees with undesirable traits, such as Africanized honey bees. This research also will contribute to the general theory of social behavior. Understanding how genetic conflicts among individuals in an insect society are resolved will shed light on how highly cooperative social behavior has evolved.