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

本世纪最耸人听闻的生物现象之一是所谓的“非洲化”或“杀手蜜蜂”在美洲的迅速传播。在巴西南部作为野生种群建立以来的33年里，非洲衍生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。热带北美(墨西哥)现在正在被殖民，这一不断增长的人口将于1990年到达美国。在非洲蜜蜂到来之后，野生蜜蜂种群迅速增加，涉及人和动物的刺痛事件层出不穷，蜂群“非洲化”，蜂群最终消失，具有“本土”欧洲亚种特征的蜜蜂数量减少，养蜂业和蜂蜜产量下降。野生非洲蜜蜂迁徙到以前由欧洲蜜蜂主导的地区提供了一个独特的机会，可以获得关于这两个不同遗传群体相互作用时发生的变化的量化数据。这项研究将侧重于种群水平和种群内促使欧洲和野生非洲种群遗传变化的过程。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基因变化率，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亲和父亲的基因流对这些过程的相对贡献，并确定选择在系统中的作用最强烈的地方。这项研究的结果将为野生蜜蜂和管理蜜蜂种群之间的遗传相互作用提供一个全面的视角。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.