Abstract
BackgroundThe Africanized honey bee is one of the most spectacular invasions in the Americas. African bees escaped from apiaries in Brazil in 1956, spread over Americas and by 1994 they were reported in Puerto Rico. In contrast to other places, the oceanic island conditions in Puerto Rico may mean a single introduction and different dynamics of the resident European and new-coming Africanized bees.To examine the genetic variation of honey bee feral populations and colonies from different locations in Puerto Rico, we used eight known polymorphic microsatellite loci.ResultsIn Puerto Rico, gAHB population does not show any genetic structure (Fst = 0.0783), and is best described as one honey bee population, product of hybridization of AHB and EHB. The genetic variability in this Africanized population was similar to that reported in studies from Texas. We observed that European private allele frequencies are high in all but one locus. This contrasts with mainland Africanized populations, where European allele frequencies are diminished. Two loci with European private alleles, one on Linkage Group 7, known to carry two known defensiveness Quantitative Trait Loci (QTLs), and the other on Linkage Group 1, known to carry three functionally studied genes and 11 candidate genes associated with Varroa resistance mechanisms were respectively, significantly greater or lower in European allele frequency than the other loci with European private alleles.ConclusionsGenetic structure of Puerto Rico gAHB differs from mainland AHB populations, probably representing evolutionary processes on the island.
Highlights
The Africanized honey bee is one of the most spectacular invasions in the Americas
The current thinking is that when Africanized honey bees (AHB) arrives at a location with a resident European population, there is a large amount of hybridization, followed by elimination of European genes over time, perhaps due to selective advantage of African genes under tropical conditions [3]
The population genetics analysis indicates the presence of a uniform genetic structure or a single gAHB population in Puerto Rico, consistent with the hybridization hypothesis
Summary
African bees escaped from apiaries in Brazil in 1956, spread over Americas and by 1994 they were reported in Puerto Rico. In contrast to other places, the oceanic island conditions in Puerto Rico may mean a single introduction and different dynamics of the resident European and new-coming Africanized bees. Honey bees are naturally distributed throughout Africa, Europe, and the Middle East. In this broad range, they have evolved into 24 subspecies, which have been grouped into three [1], four [2] or five [3] distinct evolutionary branches. The mosaic nature of observed characteristics of gAHB may be better understood with data on population genetics [14,15,16], potentially providing support for different processes discussed by [16], extending from hybridization to founder effect to selection
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