Abstract
We examine the origin of honey bee (Apis mellifera) populations in Kangaroo Island (Australia), Norfolk Island (Australia) and the Kingdom of Tonga using a highly polymorphic mitochondrial DNA region and a panel of 37 single nucleotide polymorphisms that assigns ancestry to three evolutionary lineages: Eastern Europe, Western Europe and Africa. We also examine inbreeding coefficients and genetic variation using microsatellites and mitochondrial sequencing. The honey bees of Kangaroo Island have a high proportion of Eastern European ancestry (90.2%), consistent with claims that they are of the subspecies A. m. ligustica. The honey bees of Norfolk Island also had a majority of ancestry from Eastern Europe (73.1%) with some contribution from Western Europe (21.2%). The honey bees of Tonga are mainly of Western European (70.3%) origin with some Eastern European ancestry (27.4%). Despite the suspected severe bottlenecks experienced by these island population, inbreeding coefficients were low.
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