Abstract
A population of honey bees (Apis mellifera mellifera L.) with an annual colony brood cycle adapted to a locally abundant floral source in the Landes region of Southwest France is the subject of genetic conservation efforts. This population is maintained by local beekeepers in an area that experiences both an annual seasonal influx of non-local colonies and the permanent culture of imported stock. However, some colonies native to the Landes do not have the adapted brood cycle and their status as ecotypic are in question. The present study used morphology, mitochondrial DNA and microsatellites to characterize the endemic population and suggests further genetic conservation strategies. These methods yielded different degrees of discrimination of native and imported colonies and provided a powerful suite of tools for local resource managers. Colonies from the Landes could be differentiated from non-local French A. m. mellifera populations using morphometric analysis, and from non-native and reference populations using mtDNA and microsatellites. Seven morphological characters were identified by discriminant analysis as informative for delineating the Landes ecotype from other A. m. mellifera populations. Mitochondrial haplotypes for the population were characterized and five microsatellite loci were found to be informative in characterizing the Landes population. Asymmetric gene flow detected with microsatellite alleles was observed to be 5.5–5.9% from imported to native stocks of honey bees while introgression of native microsatellite alleles into imported colonies was 21.6%.
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Acknowledgments
We thank Ludo Lemaire, Jean-Claude Ducam, Martin Irazoqui and Gilles Fert for providing experimental colonies and graciously donating time, equipment and expertise to the research. We thank the Institut für Bienenkunde in Oberursel, Germany for access to the morphological database. We thank Nicholas Dechamps for assistance in the laboratory with molecular analysis and Marina Meixner for help with data analysis. We thank François Billy and the Parc Régional Natural des Landes de Gascogne for providing staff and funding for this project. Additional funding was provided by the Centre National de la Récherche Scientifique and the Washington State Beekeepers Association.
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Strange, J.P., Garnery, L. & Sheppard, W.S. Morphological and molecular characterization of the Landes honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) ecotype for genetic conservation. J Insect Conserv 12, 527–537 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10841-007-9093-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10841-007-9093-6