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

合作研究：欧洲和非洲蜜蜂种群之间的不对称基因流

• 批准号: 9007681
• 负责人: Orley Taylor
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of Kansas Main Campus
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing grant
• 财政年份: 1990
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1990-07-01 至 1993-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9007681&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Asymmetrical; Gene; Flow

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.

本世纪最引人注目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。自非洲蜜蜂在巴西南部建立野生种群以来的 33 年里，非洲蜜蜂已经占领了南美洲和中美洲的所有热带和亚热带地区。热带北美洲（墨西哥）现在正在被殖民化，这一不断增长的种群将于 1990 年到达美国。非洲蜜蜂的到来之后，野生种群迅速增加，涉及人和动物的大量蜇伤事件，养蜂场“非洲化”，具有“本土”欧洲亚种特征的蜜蜂最终消失，养蜂业和蜂蜜产量下降。野生非洲蜜蜂迁移到以前由欧洲蜜蜂统治的地区，为获取这两个基因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。这项研究将重点关注导致欧洲和野生非洲种群遗传变化的种群水平和种群过程。研究人员结合分析和实验方法，通过使用核和线粒体遗传标记测量遗传变化率来评估“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本和父本基因流对这些过程的相对贡献，并确定选择在系统中发挥最强烈作用的地方。这项研究的结果将提供野生蜜蜂种群和管理蜜蜂种群之间遗传相互作用的全面视图。这项研究中获得的信息对于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。