Trick to perpetuate the reign

2009/06/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Genetika
• Zoologia

In the species of speratus termita Reticulitermes, the termite queen resorts to asexual reproduction to perpetuate its reign. To this conclusion a group of entomologists from the Okayama University of Japan have reached that have analyzed several termite colonies of this species. In fact, they saw that although in the colonies there were more than one queen and they all laid eggs, all descendants had a single female gene contribution.

When the termites queen begin to age, they lay eggs for the formation of secondary queens that give rise to termites workers, soldiers and specimens of the other hierarchical levels of the colony. All these termites are reproduced with King Termita, both the main queen and the secondary.

Reticulitermes speratus termitas follow a path to avoid the problems of consanguinity that would cause the union of secondary queens with their father: the queen produces by partenogenesis to secondary kings. So the newly created termites are genetically identical to those of their mother, their mother's clones. Somehow, the queen is still queen, even after her death.