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Honeybee Genome may shed light on Social
Evolution: Bees and people
have a lot in common. We both live in groups and snuggle with others when cold.
We both know that staying clean helps prevent disease. We both prepare food for
others and leave home to get it even when we aren't hungry. We both can communicate
through dancing. Of course, there
are differences. Bees are an inch long. They copulate while flying. Each
winter, the females kick the males out of the house to die. Last week, the Honeybee Genome Sequencing Consortium announced that it had finished copying
out the genetic message of Apis mellifera
, the world's most important pollinator, maker of nature's best-known sweet
food, and object of human fascination and delight for eons. The honeybee
becomes the third insect to have its genome fully transcribed, preceded by the
fruit fly drosophila and the malaria mosquito anopheles. A flour-eating beetle,
an aphid and a wasp are next in line. The work was done
by 150 people in about 20 countries over the past three years. The huge mass of
data -- along with that from the other species -- will help sketch a picture of
what it means to be an insect, as well as what it means to be a honeybee. Insects are the
most diverse group of animals on Earth, with about 925,000 identified species.
The genetic exploration may eventually shed light on the biology of togetherness and
cooperation, which
bees and people both discovered in the 600 million years since they last shared
a common ancestor.” http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/29/AR2006102900708.html ALSO SEE Hive Mentality: Researchers create a buzz http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/10/061025184939.htm |
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