Population Diversity Of Honeybee Apis Cerana In China

mtDNA diverty was studied to find out the status and variance of Apis cerana in China and provide basic data for honeybee protection. In order to detect the diversity of Apis cerana, 379 colonies of wild and kept honeybee were collected from 112 different locations of 25 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities from different climes and altitudes. Primers E₂ and H₂ were used for the PCR amplification, all of the PCR products were digested with DraI and we sequenced PCR products of 71 colonies. The following results were concluded:i. Two different kinds of PCR products were obtained. The longer type distributed widely and was detected in most of the samples while the shorter one only occurred in 5 colonies collected from Qinling area in north China.ii. PCR products were digested with DraI and four restriction patterns were revealed. After digested, two of them showed four fragments while the other two showed only three fragments because one restriction site was lost in the non-coding region or tRNA^leu gene. The honeybee variation was rich in Qinling area including all of the four restriction patterns, iii. PCR products of 71 colonies were sequenced and 19 different haplotypes were found in the non-coding region with 10 of them were reported for the first time. The sequences of the 18 haplotypes were 96-98bp long and had 12 variable sites. One of the 19 haplotypes had only 33bp with most of the non-coding region absent. The type of haplotyes mostly occurred in Qinling area and the population variety was prominent.iv. Minimum spanning network of the 18 non-coding haplotypes was made using ARLEQUIN 2.0 and genetic distance was calculated based on COII gene sequences. The analysis showed that the population was interrelated and the Apis cerana population of China had expanded in history.v. MEGA 3. 1 was used for constructing NJ tree and UPGMA tree. The trees showed the honeybee Apis cerana of China and the adjacent countries had similar mtDNA sequences and they all clustered together, belonging to the Asian mainland group, vi. The population variety richness in Qinling area was validated for the first time and thehoneybee in this zone should protected in time.The experiment analysed the mtDNA diversity of Apis cerana in China cosmically for the first time, detected many haplotypes and revealed the variation richness. The results were helpful for the honeybee protection system and provided basic information for Apis cerana research on molecule level.