Characterization of DNA from three bee species

Abstract

DNA was isolated from three species of bees: the common honey-bee ( Apis mellifera), the Indian honey-bee ( Apis cerana), and the leaf-cutting bee ( Megachile rotundata). The guanine-cytosine distribution of the two honey-bee DNAs is relatively broad and skewed toward lower values; leaf-cutting bee DNA shows a narrow distribution. No distinct satellite bands are present in any of the species. Renaturation kinetics indicate that the genome sizes of the two honey-bee species are identical to one another and somewhat smaller than that of the leaf-cutting bee. About 89 per cent of the genome of all three species renatures slowly; this fraction presumably comprises the single-copy (unique) sequence portion of the genome. Sufficient DNA was isolated from the dwarf honey-bee ( Apis florea) to determine a guanine-cytosine distribution. Like the other honey-bee species, the distribution is relatively broad.