Collaborative Research: Asymmetrical Gene Flow Between European and African Honey Bee Populations

本世纪最轰动的生物现象之一是所谓的“非洲化”或“杀人蜂”在美洲的迅速蔓延。自从它们在巴西南部作为野生种群建立以来的33年里，来自非洲的蜜蜂已经在南美洲和中美洲的所有热带和亚热带地区定居。北美热带地区（墨西哥）现在正在被殖民，这种不断扩大的人口将在1990年到达美国。随着非洲蜜蜂的到来，野生蜜蜂的数量迅速增加，人与动物之间发生了许多蜇伤事件，养蜂场的“非洲化”导致具有“本地”欧洲亚种特征的蜜蜂最终消失，养蜂业和蜂蜜产量下降。野生非洲蜜蜂进入以前由欧洲蜜蜂主导的地区，为获得这两个基因截然不同的种群相互作用时发生的变化的定量数据提供了独特的机会。这项研究将集中在种群水平和种群内的过程，这些过程有助于管理的欧洲和野生非洲种群的遗传变化。研究人员将分析和实验方法结合起来，通过使用核和线粒体遗传标记测量遗传变化的速率来评估“欧洲化”和“非洲化”。这两种类型的遗传信息将使他们能够确定母系和父系基因流对这些过程的相对贡献，并确定系统中选择作用最强烈的地方。这项研究的结果将提供一个全面的观点之间的遗传相互作用野生和管理的蜜蜂种群。这项研究获得的信息对负责制定控制非洲蜜蜂的公共政策和方法的决策者也很有价值。

One of the most sensational biological phenomena of this century has been the rapid spread of the so called "Africanized" or "Killer bees" in the Americas. In the 33 years since their establishment as a feral population in southern Brazil, African derived bees have colonized all the tropical and subtropical regions of South and Central America. Tropical North America (Mexico) is now being colonized and this expanding population will reach the United States in 1990. Arrival of African honey bees is followed by rapid build-up of a feral population, numerous stinging incidents involving people and animals, "Africanization" of apiaries with eventual disappearance of beeswith traits characteristic of "native" European subspecies, and a decline in beekeeping and honey production. Movement of feral African bees into areas previously dominated by European bees provides a unique opportunity to obtain quantitative data on the changes that occur as these two genetically distinct populations interact. This research will focus on the population level and within colony processes that contribute to genetic changes in managed European and feral African populations. The investigators combine analytical and experimental approaches to assess "Europeanization" and "Africanization" by measuring the rates of genetic change with the use of nuclear and mitochondrial genetic markers. These two types of genetic information will allow them to establish the relative contributions of maternal and paternal gene flow to these processes and to determine where selection is acting most intensely in the system. The results of this study will provide a comprehensive view of the genetic interactions between feral and managed honey bee populations. Information obtained in this study also will be valuable to decision makers charged with development of public policies and methodologies to control African bees.