Distinguishing African and European honeybee matrilines using amplified mitochondrial DNA.

Abstract

Previous DNA studies have revealed that feral neotropical African bees have largely retained an African genetic integrity. Additional DNA testing is needed to confirm these findings, to understand the processes responsible, and to follow African bee spread into the temperate United States. To facilitate surveys, the polymerase chain reaction was utilized. African and European honeybee mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) was identified through amplified segments that carry informative restriction site and length polymorphisms. The ability to discriminate among honeybee subspecies was established by testing a total of 129 colonies from Africa and Europe. Matriline identities could thus be determined for imported New World bees. Among 41 managed and feral colonies in the United States and north Mexico, two European lineages (west and east) were distinguished. From neotropical regions, 72 feral colonies had African mtDNA and 4 had European mtDNA. The results support earlier conclusions that neotropical African bees have spread as unbroken African maternal lineages. Old and New World African honeybee populations exhibit different frequencies of a mtDNA length polymorphism. Through standard analyses, a north African mtDNA type that may have been imported previously from Spain or Portugal was not detected among neotropical African bees.