Abstract
We analyzed the complete mitochondrial genome of the small hive beetle Aethina tumida, a major honeybee pest that was accidentally transported to the Hawaii Islands, USA. The mitochondrial genome of A. tumida was identified as a 15,198 bp circular molecule containing 13 protein-coding genes, 22 tRNA genes, and two rRNA genes, along with one A + T-rich control region. The average AT content was found to be 76.2%. The heavy strand was predicted to have nine protein-coding and 14 tRNA genes; while the light strand was predicted to contain four protein-coding, eight tRNA, and two rRNA genes. Among the 13 PCGs, the initiation codon ATT was found in five, ATA in three, ATG in four, and TTG in one gene. Six PCGs used TAA as the stop codon, whereas three PCGs used TAG as the stop codon. Incomplete stop codon TA (COIII, ND5, and ND4) and T (COII) were identified. We found that the genetic distance between A. tumida from Hawaii and the beetles’ natural home South Africa, was small, indicating that the Hawaii population may have originated for the South Africa region.
Highlights
The native distribution of the small hive beetle, Aethina tumida, is throughout the sub-Saharan Africa (Neumann and Ellis 2008; Neumann et al 2013)
In 2010, A. tumida was discovered in an apiary on Big Island in the Hawaii State of USA (Robson 2012) and quickly spread throughout all the major Hawaiian Islands (Martin 2013)
The phylogenetic analysis was performed under the maximum likelihood (ML) criterion using TREEFINDER (Jobb 2011)
Summary
The native distribution of the small hive beetle, Aethina tumida, is throughout the sub-Saharan Africa (Neumann and Ellis 2008; Neumann et al 2013). KEYWORDS generation sequence; small hive beetle; Aethina tumida; Hawaii; beekeeping In 2010, A. tumida was discovered in an apiary on Big Island in the Hawaii State of USA (Robson 2012) and quickly spread throughout all the major Hawaiian Islands (Martin 2013).
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