Monday, 27 October 2003 - 11:00 AM
0275

This presentation is part of : Ten-Minute Papers, Section Cb. Apiculture and Social Insects

Does the africanization process of feral honey bees (Apis mellifera L.) from the southern US involve hybridization

Alice M. Pinto1, William L. Rubink2, Robert N. Coulson1, John C. Patton, and John S. Johnston3. (1) Texas A&M University, Knowledge Engineering Laboratory, Entomology Department, Heep Center, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, (2) USDA ARS, Beneficial Insects Research Unit, 2413 E. Highway 83, Bld. 213, Weslaco, TX, (3) Texas A&M University, Entomology, Heep Center, College Station, TX

The genetic composition of Africanized honey bee populations in the neotropics has been intensively debated. Some researchers have claimed that Africanized honey bees have retained an African genetic integrity whereas others claim that they have hybridized with European honey bees. Despite these two contradictory perspectives of the Africanization process in the neotropics, extensive hybridization between European and Africanized honey bees has been predicted in the United States. We report the results of mitochondrial DNA and nuclear DNA (microsatellite) markers of honey bees sampled from a feral population over an 11-year interval (1991-2001) as this population was undergoing Africanization. We test the null hypothesis that there has been no gene flow between Africanized and European honey bees during the Africanization process.

Species 1: Hymenoptera Apidae Apis mellifera (honey bee)
Keywords: Africanized, hybridization

Back to Ten-Minute Papers, Section Cb. Apiculture and Social Insects
Back to Ten-Minute Papers, Section Ca, Cb, Cc, Cd, Ce, and Cf

Back to The 2003 ESA Annual Meeting and Exhibition