Apidologie 33 (2002) 25-31
DOI: 10.1051/apido:2001002

New haplotypes for the non-coding region of mitochondrial DNA in cavity-nesting honey bees Apis koschevnikovi and Apis nuluensis

Jun-ichi Takahashi^a, Jun Nakamura^b, Masami Sasaki^c, Salim Tingek^d and Shin-ichi Akimoto<sup>a

a</sup>  Department of Ecology and Systematics, Graduate School of Agriculture, Hokkaido University, Sapporo 060-8589, Japan
^b  Honeybee Science Research Center, Tamagawa University, Machida, Tokyo 194-8610, Japan
^c  Laboratory of Entomology, Faculty of Agriculture, Tamagawa University, Machida, Tokyo, 194-8610, Japan
^d  Agriculture Research Station Tenom, PO Box 197, 89908, Tenom, Sabah, Malaysia

(Received 23 April 2001; revised 29 August 2001; accepted 5 October 2001)

Abstract
The cavity-nesting honeybees, Apis cerana, A. koschevnikovi and A. nuluensis, are distributed in Sabah, Borneo. We sequenced the non-coding intergenic region between the tRNA leu and COII mitochondrial genes of these three species. About 50 different haplotypes have been reported for the non-coding region of A. cerana, A. koschevnikovi and A. nigrocincta. This study detected new haplotypes in A. koschevnikovi and A. nuluensis, which we designated Sabah 1 and Sabah short, respectively. Sabah short is the first short sequence reported from Borneo.

Key words: Apis cerana / Apis koschevnikovi / Apis nuluensis / mitochondrial DNA

Correspondence and reprints: Masami Sasaki
    e-mail: sasaki@agr.tamagawa.ac.jp

© INRA, EDP Sciences, DIB, AGIB 2002