Restriction Endonuclease Cleavage Site and Length Polymorphisms in Mitochondrial DNA of Apis mellifera mellifera and A. m. carnica (Hymenoptera: Apidae)

Abstract

Restriction endonuclease cleavage maps of mitochondrial DNAs of Scandinavian Apis mellifera mellifera L., of German, Austrian, and Yugoslavian A. m. carnica Pollman, and of Austrian "Nigra" honey bees are compared with previously published maps of mitochondrial DNA from North American bees of European ancestry and Brazilian Africanized bees. A. m. mellifera mitochondrial DNA is characterized by a pattern of cleavage sites unique among the honey bee populations thus far investigated. Variation in size of the mitochondrial DNA molecule is common among families (hives) of A. m. mellifera and appears to involve several distinct regions that span a region at least 5.1 kilobase pairs in length. Some elements of size variation seem to be confined to the A. m. mellifera population, whereas others are shared with Africanized bees. A. m. carnica mitochondrial DNA is characterized by a pattern of cleavage sites, which differs from that of A. m. mellifera and the Africanized bees but is similar to that of the domestic North American bees of European ancestry.