Meta-analysis of genetic diversity and intercolony relatedness among reproductives in commercial honey bee populations.

ABSTRACT: Honey bee colonies are large kin groups, each with a single mother queen and thousands of female workers. Queen bees are highly polyandrous, each mating with an average of approximately 12 drones from other colonies. We used a meta-analysis approach to compare the pedigree relationships of honey bee reproductives (queens and their mates) across five different studies and to quantify the overall genetic diversity of breeding populations. We compared the inferred genotypes of queens and their mates from microsatellite analyses of worker offspring from a feral Africanized honey bee population (which served as a negative control for inbreeding), an experimentally derived population of sister queens (which served as a positive control for inbreeding), and three separate commercially managed pop

SUBMITTER: Tarpy DR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10926410 | biostudies-literature | 2023

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature