Highly polymorphic DNA markers in an Africanized honey bee population in Costa Rica

Jorge Arturo Lobo Segura

doi:10.1590/s1415-47572000000200013

Abstract

Two genetic markers (the mtDNA COI-COII intergenic region and the microsatellite A7) with high levels of variability in South African and European honey bees were analyzed in wild swarms of Africanized honey bees (Apis mellifera) from Costa Rica. Allelic or haplotypic frequencies revealed high levels of genetic variability at these loci in this population. Most of the alleles were African alleles, although some European-derived alleles were also present. Differences in the frequencies of African alleles between African and Africanized samples were minor, which could be explained by founder effects occurring during the introduction of African honey bee populations into South America.

Highlights

Assessment of the genetic diversity in populations of Africanized honey bees has been conducted with genetic markers and multivariate morphometry (Daly and Balling, 1978; Hall and Muraldiharan, 1989; Lobo et al, 1989; Smith et al, 1989; Hall and Smith, 1991; Moritz and Meusel, 1992; Sheppard et al, 1991; Rinderer et al, 1991; McMichael and Hall, 1996)
Conflicting conclusions have been reported for the degree of admixture between African and European genes in Africanized honey bees, the general pattern of the genetic data demonstrates that Africanized bees are essentially an African-derived population
A recent multivariate morphometric analysis of Brazilian honey bees showed that morphometric clines correlated well with allele frequency clines at the MDH loci (Diniz-Filho and Malaspina, 1995). These data suggest that levels of gene flow vary among Africanized honey bee populations

Summary

Introduction

Assessment of the genetic diversity in populations of Africanized honey bees has been conducted with genetic markers and multivariate morphometry (Daly and Balling, 1978; Hall and Muraldiharan, 1989; Lobo et al, 1989; Smith et al, 1989; Hall and Smith, 1991; Moritz and Meusel, 1992; Sheppard et al, 1991; Rinderer et al, 1991; McMichael and Hall, 1996). A recent multivariate morphometric analysis of Brazilian honey bees showed that morphometric clines correlated well with allele frequency clines at the MDH loci (Diniz-Filho and Malaspina, 1995) These data suggest that levels of gene flow vary among Africanized honey bee populations

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