A group of researchers from Arizona State University have carried out a study in which they have revealed about how the evolution process of molecular switch for sex in honeybees has taken place.

It was in the mid-1800s that Johann Dzierson, a Silesian monk, came up with a genetic mechanism for sex determination. One thing he could not was how male and females were produced in honeybee colonies.

Though he was well aware of the difference that made queen bee and workers, he was not sure about males. In order to know the same, the study researchers have studied 14 natural sequence variants of csd gene, complimentary sex determining switch. The same was assessed for 76 genotypes of honeybees.

During the procedure, the study researchers were able to know that the honeybees' high recombination rate is the highest when compared with any other animal studied. This revelation gave a direction to the study researchers and they did sequencing of complementary sex determining locus.

It was then they got to know that they can come up with a male through a diploid genotype. "There has to be some segment of that gene that is responsible in this allelic series, where if you have two different coding sequences in that part of the gene you end up producing a female", said Robert Page, one of the researchers.