Allozyme Variability in Populations of Local Bulgarian Honey Bee

ABSTRACT

Genetic variation of honey bee populations from six different locations corresponding to tree geographic regions: Northwestern, North-central and North-eastern of Bulgaria was studied on 6 enzymic systems (MDH, ME, EST, ALP, PGM and HK) corresponding to 6 genetic loci. Allozyme analysis revealed that all loci studied were polymorphic in almost all populations studied. The mean number of alleles per locus varied from 1.8 to 2.5. The estimated percentage of polymorphic loci was between 50% and 100%. The observed and expected heterozygosities (H_o and H_e) ranged from 0.17 to 0.221 and 0.250 to 0.315, respectively. There are not significant deviations of genotype frequencies from Hardy-Weinberg expectations at most of the loci in most populations (0.99 > P > 0.1). The estimated mean F^ST value from allozyme data was 0.0443 which shows that 4.43% of the overall genetic diversity observed was among populations, as opposed to 95.57% within populations. The values of genetic distance range from 0.002 to 0.036. UPGMA dendrograms were constructed.

Keywords:

• Honey bee
• Apis mellifera
• allozymes
• Bulgaria