"One surprising finding from this study was that none of the sampled colonies were Africanized by maternal descent."

And thus the 100% misleading implication that these are not Africanized bees.  In fact this study tells you only that they are not Africanized by maternal descent which tells you about less than 0.1% of the total genes of this population.  It tells you nothing what so ever about paternal descent which could be very strongly Africanized.  In fact a population of bees could test 0% Africanized by maternal descent and still be nearly 100% Africanized by nuclear DNA.  Just because these authors are too lazy to do proper studies is no excuse for such a misleading statement.

Let me give an example from humans.  The average white European has about 2% Neanderthal nuclear genes.  In fact, in this population a total of about 10% of the nuclear gene variants are derived from Neanderthals.  Yet, if you look at mitochondrial DNA you would conclude Neanderthals and Humans never mated.  You would also conclude Denisovans and Humans never mated.  And you would be 100% wrong in both cases.

Just about everything you see about mtDNA in honey bees telling you some fact is some place between useless and misleading.  It is a fact that mtDNA analyses have uses.  And it is a fact that such data is so often misinterpreted that it should automatically be distrusted when encountered until studied enough to know it is valid and not misleading.  A peer reviewed publication is no place close to enough to know it is valid and not misleading.

Dick

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