Thank you Phil for the kind words, much appreciated. You have an ability to see the light through the tiny cracks in the wall.
Incognito, you have read well and responded in such a way I was hoping for. In a word, APPLIED. By applied I mean you digested the info, understood and then APPLIED logic to respond. Your Mountain Goat analogy is well understood. I?ll address later...below. Agreed, the drone appears responsible for the genetics that code for defensive behaviors and the conclusion was hopeful for a queen to mutate to create resolve,,,,helping the gene pool down the road. This is my highly condensed version of your well thought out response excepting your last paragraph to which I will address below.
Regarding my recombinant dna post, I did not point out deliberately I might add that some genes are CONSEREVED. The word conserved meaning they DNA does not change, does not mutate or at the least, is very rare for the CONSERVED regions to be altered. The best example I can think of is the aggressive nature of the african honey bee which has maintained the aggression for decades. Obviously the dna is CONSERVED for the african honey bee. With humans the conserved regions of dna are being patented for future hopes of vaccine in humans which was the attention of my focus prior to retirement. BTW, all my patents were submitted in the name of my employer, US Govt, NIH/NIAID. We all own the patented DNA that I submitted.
So, agreed, Incognito, we can certainly help the gene pool of the honey bee as BenFramed pointed out, I have been working on for years. There is progress, but the process is painstaking slow. My mites drops are slowly dwindling but still to be considered invasive.
The Mountain Goat may well have been Natures answer to wolves resisting sheep as well as mans influence to favor dog strains that protect or herd sheep. I kinda combined incognito and BenFramed statements into the supportive single previous sentence.
Thinking of the aggressive genes being maintained by the drone and hopes for queen dilution I think of the african lion where the female posses genes to greatly reduce the size of the male and only MALE offspring. African male lions bred to female tigers produced offspring in the 750 pound range. Double the size of either cat. I make no statements regarding the morals of the tiger lion assay other than to say I would not participate in such abuse of nature. So again, agreed there is indeed excitement of a honey bee evolving resistant to Varroa by means of mutation by either or both sexes.
More later.,,
Van