Coleene wrote:
> According to the article I read

Sorry, Coleene, but a pop science magazine like "Discover" is not the
place to get good information about genetic diversity in the honey bee
population. Ben Oldroyd is one of the smartest bee researchers in the
world. So I follow his train of thought, as well as that of other
other hard working bee researchers like Debbie Delaney. She has
analyzed hundreds of samples from all over the US and uses the latest
tools of genetic research. Compared to these people, we are armchair
scientists.

> Genetic diversity levels within and between the two commercial breeding areas in the United States were analyzed using the DraI restriction fragment length polymorphism of the COICOII mitochondrial region and 10 polymorphic microsatellite loci. The western commercial breeding population (WCBP) and the southeastern commercial breeding population (SCBP) were sampled in 1993-1994 and again in 2004-2005. The goal of this study was to characterize the genetic composition of these populations and to measure potential changes in genetic diversity and composition across the sampling period.

> The overall genetic diversity of the WCBP and SCBP did not change over the 10-yr span. However, the allelic makeup of these populations did change. The WCBP and SCBP were genetically different from one another, and the SCBP actually gained alleles during the 10-yr span. These findings suggest that the WCBP and the SCBP could benefit from sharing germ plasm to help maintain diversity. This research also suggests that the current queen production practices of producing 1,000,000 daughter queens from  500 queen mothers, is having little effect on genetic diversity due to drift and the inflow of new alleles.

> the maintenance of adequate genetic diversity in U.S. commercial honey bee populations will probably depend on the future inflow of new alleles.

Genetic Characterization of Commercial Honey Bee (Hymenoptera: Apidae)
Populations in the United States by Using Mitochondrial and
Microsatellite Markers
D. A. DELANEY,  M. D. MEIXNER,  N. M. SCHIFF, AND W. S. SHEPPARD
Ann. Entomol. Soc. Am. 102(4): 666Ð673 (2009)

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