Free Access
| Issue |
Apidologie
Volume 31, Number 2, March-April 2000
Taxonomy and Evolutionary biology of the Honeybees
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|---|---|---|
| Page(s) | 167 - 180 | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/apido:2000114 | |
DOI: 10.1051/apido:2000114
Apidologie 31 (2000) 167-180
Molecular confirmation of a fourth lineage in honeybees from the Near East
Pierre Francka - Lionel Garneryb - Michel Solignacb - Jean-Marie Cornueta
aLaboratoire de Modélisation et Biologie Evolutive, URLB-INRA,
488 rue Croix de Lavit, 34090 Montpellier, France
bLaboratoire Population, Génétique et Évolution, CNRS, Gif-sur-Yvette, France
Abstract:
The mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) from 75 honeybee colonies from the Lebanon was characterized by DraI
restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) of the COI-COII intergenic region. The seven observed
haplotypes were different enough from all haplotypes already known in Apis mellifera to justify
their assignment to a fourth mtDNA lineage. The nucleotide sequence of a 380 base pair (bp) fragment of
the NADH2 gene was determined for two haplotypes, which showed a high similarity with two published
sequences from A. m. lamarkii and A. m. meda. A microsatellite analysis of a large Lebanese
population sample (50 colonies, 8 loci) suggests that Near East populations are also differentiated at the
nuclear level from the three previously characterized evolutionary branches of the species
A. mellifera.
Keywords:
Apis mellifera / mtDNA / microsatellite / evolutionary history / Near East
Correspondence and reprints: Jean-Marie Cornuet
E-mail: cornuet@ensam.inra.fr
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