ASSESSMENT OF THE AFRICANIZED ORIGIN IN THE INTEGRATION OF AN EXPERIMENTAL POPULATION OF Apis mellifera L.

Abstract

The African bee (Apis mellifera scutellata) was introduced from South Africa to Brazil in 1956 to induce genetic recombinations and generate segregants adapted to tropical areas; however, 26 colonies escaped and a process of Africanization started in the American continent. An experimental apiary was integrated by recombination of European and Africanized germplasm for breeding purposes, which has been maintained without application of acaricide against varroasis for more than 20 years. The population was generated by controlled mating of European bees (Apis mellifera ligustica) that had been under genetic improvement for about 15 years (source of drones) with Africanized bees (A. m. scutellata with probable genetic recombination with other European subspecies) that had been under to a selection process for its semi-domestication and genetic improvement under apicultural criteria (source of queen bees). In order to obtain information on the maternal origin of the population, the intergenic regions COI-COII and ND5 of the mtDNA were sequenced in a random sample of 19 hives. The maternal African origin of A. m. scutellata (74 %) was confirmed and the presence of hives of hybrid origin of A. m. scutellata × A. m. capensis (26 %), not reported in Mexico before this investigation, was revealed. This seems to indicate that Africanized bees have conserved their mitochondrial DNA through the dispersion process.