Apidologie 38 (2007) 323-334
DOI: 10.1051/apido:2007019

Matrilineal origins of Apis mellifera in Thailand

Tipwan Suppasat^{a, b}, Deborah Roan Smith^c, Sureerat Deowanish^{a, b} and Siriwat Wongsiri<sup>a, b, d

a</sup>  Biological Science Program, Faculty of Science, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, 10330, Thailand
^b  Center of Excellence in Entomology, Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, 10330, Thailand
^c  Entomology Program, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Division of Biological Science, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, 66045, USA
^d  Faculty of Technology, Mahasarakharm University, Mahasarakharm Province, 44000, Thailand

(Received 25 September 2006 - Revised 18 January 2007 - Accepted 23 January 2007 - Published online 10 October 2007)

Abstract - Apis mellifera was imported to Thailand approximately 60 years ago, but the subspecies that contributed to honey bee populations in this country are unknown. We collected 476 colonies from North, Central, Northeast and South Thailand and used PCR-RFLP and direct DNA sequencing to identify mitochondrial lineages and subspecies present. Three common and five rare composite haplotypes were found. Haplotype group ThaiA1 (22% of colonies) and group ThaiA2 (60%) match C or east European lineage A. m. ligustica and A. m. carnica. Haplotype group ThaiB (18%) belongs to the O or Middle Eastern lineage. Non-coding mitochondrial sequences of ThaiB are similar to those of A. m. syriaca and A. m. lamarckii, although no published sequence is an exact match. Analysis of Molecular Variation (AMOVA) showed most of the observed genetic variation occurred within individual apiaries, but significant differentiation between North + Central and Northeast + South regions was observed.

Key words: Apis mellifera / mtDNA variation / RFLPs / DNA sequence / introduced species


© INRA, DIB-AGIB, EDP Sciences 2007