Population genomics and morphometric assignment of western honey bees (Apis mellifera L.) in the Republic of South Africa.

ABSTRACT:

Backgrounds

Apis mellifera scutellata and A.m. capensis (the Cape honey bee) are western honey bee subspecies indigenous to the Republic of South Africa (RSA). Both bees are important for biological and economic reasons. First, A.m. scutellata is the invasive "African honey bee" of the Americas and exhibits a number of traits that beekeepers consider undesirable. They swarm excessively, are prone to absconding (vacating the nest entirely), usurp other honey bee colonies, and exhibit heightened defensiveness. Second, Cape honey bees are socially parasitic bees; the workers can reproduce thelytokously. Both bees are indistinguishable visually. Therefore, we employed Genotyping-by-Sequencing (GBS), wing geometry and standard morphometric approaches to assess the genetic diversity and

SUBMITTER: Eimanifar A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6094452 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature