Haplodiploidy: the great evolutionary innovation of the Hymenoptera

该项目旨在确定导致细胞性孤雌生殖的关键基因。生殖能力是雌性克隆自己（处女生育）的能力，在膜翅目昆虫中广泛存在，包括蜜蜂、黄蜂和蚂蚁。膜翅目昆虫的寄生性很重要，因为它促进了生命史上的一些重大转变，尤其是社会寄生性。单性生育的能力是许多蚂蚁物种入侵的核心，并使蜜蜂的社会癌症（杀死殖民地的寄生工蜂）成为可能。这个项目的好处是，基因的鉴定应该有助于识别潜在的入侵蚂蚁物种，并有助于防止影响南非商业养蜂的社会癌症蔓延到世界各地。

This project aims to identify a key gene that causes thelytokous parthenogenesis. Thelytoky is the ability of a female to clone herself (virgin birth), and is wide spread in the Hymenoptera which include bees, wasps and ants. Hymenopteran thelytoky is important because it facilitates some major transitions in life history, particularly social parasitism. The capacity for virgin birth is central to the invasiveness of many ant species, and enables social cancers (parasitic workers that kill colonies) in bees. The benefit of this project is that the identification of the gene should help identify potentially invasive ant species and help prevent the social cancers that affect commercial beekeeping in South Africa from spreading world-wide.