Genetic diversity of honey bee( Apis mellifera L.) populations in Jiroft using microsatellite markers

Ataollah Rahimi^1*, Mahdeh Asadi² and Rohollah abdolshahi³
 
1-Ph.D student of entomology. Department of Plant protection, College of Agriculture, Razi University, Kermanshah, Iran
 2- Department of Plant protection,  College of Agriculture, Shahid Bahonar University, Kerman, Iran
3-Department of Agronomy and plant breeding, College of Agriculture, Shahid Bahonar University, Kerman, Iran
* Corresponding author. E-mail: Rahimi.ata.1@gmail.com
 
 
Abstract:
In order to evaluate genetic diversity in fifty worker bees collected from two apiaries of different locations in Jiruft, SSR markers were used. PCR of genomic DNA was done, using five pairs of microsatellite primers. Detection of PCR products was done by use of denatured polyacrylamide gel )l. 21(, so we have found the existence of polymorphic alleles between above mentioned worker bees. The results obtained showed us that the mean polymorphism information content (PIC) was 28.57% A7 primer had the highest (31%) and A28 and A43 primers had the lowest PIC value (12%) between worker bees in jiruft. The mean of Nei’s gene diversity  and Shannon’s information index for both populations were 0.2942 and 0.4601, respectively The maximum number of effective alleles belonged to A7 locus with 6 alleles, and the minimum belonged to A28 and A43 loci with three alleles.All the loci showed a significant difference from Hardy-weinberg equilibrium In one of the two populations, heterozygosity ranged from 0.489 at A28 locus to 0.740 at A7 locus. Genetic similarity was calculated using the similarity matrix, and dendrogram was drawn using UPGMA. The results of this research showed us that there are similarities between two ecotypes and low variations within each of the two populations, we conclude that  the practices of summer-winter displacements of hives,by beekeepers from Jiruft to other regions plus intercross between bees of different apiaries inside Jiruft as factors and causes to be blamed.