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Diversity of Apis mellifera Subspecies from Turkey Revealed by Sequence Analysis of Mitochondrial 16s rDNA Region

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Abstract

Mitochondrial DNA sequence variation can be used to infer honeybee evolutionary relationships. In this study, DNA sequence diversity of the mitochondrial 16s rDNA region was investigated in 112 honeybees from 15 populations in Turkey, which is mainly populated with Apis mellifera anatoliaca, A. m. caucasica, and A. m. meda. The study revealed 11 haplotypes for this segment, with 13 variable sites and nine parsimony informative sites. The haplotypes were not discriminated according to their geographical locations in a neighbor-joining dendrogram based on 16s rDNA sequences available in Genbank, but all the haplotypes obtained in this study are clustered with published haplotypes such as A. mellifera TAS (AF214666) and A. m. ligustica (EF116868) and with some unpublished Genbank records (HQ318928, HQ318934, and HQ318938). This study expands the knowledge of the mitochondrial 16s rDNA region, and it presents the first comprehensive sequence analysis of this region in Turkish honeybees.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Prof. Dr. Mehmet Ali Yildiz (Ankara University, Faculty of Agriculture) for providing insight and guidance during various phases of this project. We also thank the anonymous reviewers for their comments on an earlier version of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Animal Science Department, Biometry and Genetics Division, Faculty of Agriculture, Selçuk University, 42075, Konya, Turkey

    Fulya Özdil & Fatma Ilhan

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  1. Fulya Özdil
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  2. Fatma Ilhan
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Correspondence to Fulya Özdil.

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Özdil, F., Ilhan, F. Diversity of Apis mellifera Subspecies from Turkey Revealed by Sequence Analysis of Mitochondrial 16s rDNA Region. Biochem Genet 50, 748–760 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10528-012-9517-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10528-012-9517-1

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