STUDY OF ALLELE POOL AND GENETIC DIFFERENTIATION OF THE FAR-EASTERN HONEY BEES

M.S. Fornara¹, A.S. Kramarenko², M.A. Sharov³, N.A. Zinovieva^1
1L.K. Ernst All-Russian Research Institute of Animal Husbandry, pos. Dubrovitsy, 60, Podol‘skii r-n, Moskovskaya obl., 142132, Russian Federation
²Mykolayiv National Agrarian University, ul. Georgiya Gongadze, 9, Nikolaev, 54020, Ukraina
³Primorsk Research Institute of Agriculture, ul. Volozhenina, 30, p. Timiryazevskii, Ussuriisk, Primorskii krai, 692539, Russian Federation

Summary. The maintenance of biodiversity of honeybee is necessary for the development and improvement of beekeeping efficacy. The regional populations may be a significant reserve of biodiversity. The aim of this study was a characteristic of the allele pool and differentiation degree of the Primorskii population of the Far-Eastern honeybees using seven microsatellite loci (A024, A88, A113, AP043, HB-C16-05, HB-THE-03, HB-C16-01). Worker bees of the Far-Eastern population (DALN, n = 143) were used as a material for the study. The degree of their genetic differentiation was estimated by the values of the fixation index F(ST) at the pairwise comparison and by Ney’s genetic distances N(D). The previously studied groups of the purebred Central Russian (SR, n = 61), Gray Mountain Caucasian (SGK, n = 70), Carnica (CAR, n = 30) and Carpathian races (KARP, n = 55) were used as the comparison groups. The purebred individuals were selected from the analyzed samples based on the values of the similarity coefficient (Q), which averaged 97.9 ± 0.2%, 98.0 ± 0.1%, 95.8 ± 0.4% and 98.1 ± 0.1%, respectively. The studied DALN group was characterized by a relatively high level of genetic diversity (11.14 ± 1.30 alleles per locus), which was comparable to the values in the KARP (12.43 ± 2.71), SR (11.29 ± 2.49) and CAR (10.00 ± 2.07) groups. In the DALN group we can observe the highest effective number of alleles: 4.94 against 3.19-4.51 in the other studied groups. The DALN group was characterized by the highest value of the deficiency of heterozygotes (F(IS) = 0.32) that was comparable with the values in the SR group (F(IS) = 0.31). The DALN group along with the SGK was characterized by a high level of genetic consolidation: based on the DNA analysis, about 96.5% individuals was assigned to own population, which can be considered as an indication of low gene flow with other studied races. Different origin of the Far-Eastern honey bees was confirmed by formation of their own independent branch at the phylogenetic tree. The research results allow us to conclude that the Far-Eastern honey bee can be considered as a separated race for inclusion in the pedigree register.

Keywords: honey bee, microsatellites, biodiversity, DNA markers, Far East bees.

Author Details: M.S. Fornara, Cand. Sc. (Biol.), senior research fellow (e-mail Этот адрес электронной почты защищён от спам-ботов. У вас должен быть включен JavaScript для просмотра.); A.S. Kramarenko, Cand. Sc. (Agr.), assist. of department (e-mail: Этот адрес электронной почты защищён от спам-ботов. У вас должен быть включен JavaScript для просмотра.), M.A. Sharov, Cand. Sc. (Agr.), head of laboratory (e-mail: Этот адрес электронной почты защищён от спам-ботов. У вас должен быть включен JavaScript для просмотра.); N.A. Zinovieva, D. Sc. (Biol.), member of the RAS, director (e-mail: Этот адрес электронной почты защищён от спам-ботов. У вас должен быть включен JavaScript для просмотра.).

For citation: Fornara M.S., Kramarenko A.S., Sharov M.A., Zinovieva N.A. Study of Allele Pool and Genetic Differentiation of the Far-Eastern Honey Bees. Dostizheniya nauki i tekhniki APK. 2016. V. 30. No. 10. Pp. 101-104 (in Russ.).