Investigation of genetic variation among Thai honeybee Apis cerana using mitochondrial DNA control region

Abstract

PCR-RFLP of control region of mtDNA was used to analyze genetic variation and population structure of 125 Apis cerana colonies from 6 geographically locations in Thailand : 1) North, 2) North/East, 3) Central, 4) South, 5) Samui Island and 6) Phuket Island. Primer AM8 and AM11, designed from A. mellifera mtDNA sequence, produced PCR product of 2,750 bp. Two, three and ten haplotypes were obtained from TaqI, RsaI and Hinff digestion of amplified control region, respectively. Eleven different composite haplotypes were generated. A UPGMA phenogram based on genetic distance among different composite haplotypes and nucleotide divergence between six populations predominately separated A. cerana into two evolutionary lineages, Northern area (North, North/East and Central) and Southern area (South, Samui Island and Phuket Island). The nucleotide divergence between the two evolutionary lineages were 3.8%. Geographic heterogeneity analysis based on a Monte Carlo simulation (Chi-square) and F-statistic could divide A. cerana in Thailand into three groups by further separated the Samui Island from Southern area.