Quote Originally Posted by Eric McArthur View Post
Michael Haberl and Diethard Tautz wrote:
Frequencies of different subfamilies differed significantly and ranged from 3.8% to 27.3%.

However, the analyses of progeny samples taken 12 months apart do not allow us to exclude moderate fluctuations of subfamily frequencies in the long-term.

We estimate the effect of sperm clumping to be less than 6%.
These statement imply that specific dominant characteristics can appear in specific periods of time, if not continuously, which would confirm the validity of many observations of beekeepers over the years.
How long is a piece of string?
Best regards
Eric
I don't think Tautz's statement implies this at all. He uses the term 'moderate fluctuations' and does not imply at all that the percentages of the various worker sub families change drastically.

What he is mainly saying here is that if a queen mates with 10 drones, each one contributes differing amounts of sperm, rather than a uniform 10% each. One drone might contribute 25% of the sperm ie. contribute genetic material to 25% of the workers in the colony whereas another drone might only contribute a couple of percent. I agree with Rosie that the study quoted above is pretty compelling with regard to disproving the myth of drone sperm being stored in discrete packages in the spermatheca.

My question is - despite the seemingly conclusive finding of Collin’s in vitro research, did his team ever do DNA testing
Tautz
Paternity was determined by analysis of three polymorphic microsatellite loci, leading to the conclusion that the queen had mated with seven males.
Tautz certainly used dna testing