Apidologie 38 (2007) 335-340
DOI: 10.1051/apido:2007018

Geographic variation in the Japanese islands of Apis cerana japonica and in A. cerana populations bordering its geographic range

Jun-ichi Takahashi^a, Tadaharu Yoshida^a, Toshiyuki Takagi^b, Shin'ichi Akimoto^c, Kun S. Woo^d, Sureerat Deowanish^e, Randall Hepburn^f, Jun Nakamura^a and Mitsuo Matsuka<sup>a

a</sup>  Honeybee Science Research Center, Research Institute, Tamagawa University, Machida, Tokyo, 194-8610, Japan
^b  Laboratory of Entomology, Department of Agriculture, Graduate School of Agriculture, Tamagawa University, Machida, Tokyo, 194-8610, Japan
^c  Laboratory of Systematic Entomology, Department of Ecology and Systematics, Graduate School of Agriculture, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, 060-8589, Japan
^d  Institute of Korea Beekeeping Science College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Seoul National University
^e  Bee Biology Research Unit, Department of Biology, Chulalongkom University, Korea, Bangkok 10330, Thailand
^f  Department of Zoology and Entomology, Rhodes University, Grahamstown 6140, South Africa

(Received 31 January 2006 - Revised 15 February 2007 - Accepted 15 February 2007 - Published online 10 October 2007)

Abstract - Genetic variation among Apis cerana japonica isolates from Japan and Apis cerana isolates from the neighboring areas of Russia, South Korea, and Taiwan was determined from DNA sequences of the mitochondrial DNA non-coding region (between tRNA leu and COII). Three haplotypes were identified among 470 colonies samples at 47 Japanese sites. All isolates from the main Japanese Islands of Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu belonged to a single haplotype, a previously reported Japan 1 haplotype. Two new haplotypes were found on the far southern Japanese islands of Amami-Oshima and Tsushima (the Japan 3 and Japan 4 haplotypes, respectively). The A. cerana from Russia and South Korea were the Japan 1 isolate, the A. cerana from Taiwan was the previously known Taiwan haplotype. Our studies showed little genetic variation in the mtDNA of A. cerana japonica, indicating that this genomic region is of limited use for detecting genetic variation among closely related populations of A. cerana.

Key words: Apis cerana / geographic variation / mitochondrial DNA / Japan / biogeography / population genetics


© INRA, DIB-AGIB, EDP Sciences 2007