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Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Thu, 31 Jan 2019 08:56:23 -0500
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Trevor writes:
> The classic example is yellow box (Eucalyptus melliodora). 

I first tasted yellow box in 1975, in southern California. I was captivated by it. I went on to harvest many tons of eucalyptus honey, but none of it was yellow box I guess, because it never had that distinct flavor. Decades later, I was given a jar of yellow box from Australia by a friend who thought it tasted awful. I love it and used it up quickly. Another friend brought me another jar from Australia, which is also disappearing. To me, nothing matters in honey but the taste. Other people can quibble over authenticity. As a matter of fact, it is getting ridiculous when it comes to this:

Depending on the country/region, the A. mellifera subspecies native to Europe belong to three
different lineages: A (A. m. iberiensis), M (A. m. iberiensis and A. m. mellifera) and C (A. m.
ligustica and A. m. carnica). In this work, two DNA-based approaches were developed with
the aim of entomological authentication of European honeys.

In this context, several conservation programs and protected areas are being established for
some subspecies that are being recognised as threatened in its native range, such as the Dark
honeybee (De la Rúa et al., 2009; Pinto et al., 2014). In this case, for beekeepers to valorise
hive products, it is of major importance to authenticate the entomological origin of honey.

The present work demonstrated that DNA-based methods can provide accurate and powerful
tools for the entomological honey authentication at the subspecies/lineage level.

Soares, Sónia, et al. "Towards honey authentication: differentiation of Apis mellifera subspecies 
in European honeys based on mitochondrial DNA markers." Food Chemistry (2019).

Peter L Borst
Ithaca, NY USA 

¶

PS: those pesky mitochondrial markers again! what a crock.

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