Asymmetrical hybridisation of Africanized and European honey bees in the neo-tropics

African bees were introduced to Brazil in 1956. They then spread north to the US displacing docile European bees. In hybridised populations, 20-30% of nuclear genes are European in origin, but mitochondrial genes are almost exclusively African. This suggests either an asymmetrical hybridisation event on a massive scale, or that mitochondrial genomes are not selectively neutral. By utilising our historical collections, and new ones, we shall assess the level and direction of hybridisation events over time. This will provide new insights into the hybridisation of formerly geographically isolated subspecies, and provide new ways of detecting Africanized genes for quarantine purposes.

Kylea Clarke, a PhD student in our lab has been allocated to the project. A collection of 300 colonies was made in Mexico in March 1998 along the same transects as followed by Rinderer et al. (1989). Over 600 reference specimens from Europe, Africa and Latin America were obtained from the USDA. Examination of these specimens using the ‘Dra-1’ test, show that a great number of different genotypes are now extant in Mexico, and the level of asymmetrical hybridization may not be as great as has been reported.

This project is being conducted in collaboration with Dr. T. Rinderer from the USDA Bee Breeding laboratory in Baton Rouge, LA.

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